Opening up the can of worms
by RosarioN
Summary: COMPLETE
1. Trying to act 'normal'

Disclaimer: I don't own anything or anyone.

This is set during Season 6. Everyone knows that Wyatt will turn evil, but they don't know who Chris is, until now…

Chapter 1: Carrying on as 'normal'

(Paige, Phoebe, and Leo are gathered in the manor living room. Piper descends the stairs)

Piper: well he's drifted off again

Paige: yeah but for how long?

Piper: I just don't know, it's the fifth time he's woken up in the past hour; I guess he just doesn't want to nap.

Phoebe: Well let's hope he's going to sleep for a while longer, you know how Chris gets when his little meetings get interrupted.

Leo: Chris is coming?

Paige: yeah he's been calling daily demon busting seminars, it's just easier to go along with it rather than listen to his moaning.

Leo: well in that case I'm leaving

Piper: Come on Leo, I thought you were going to stay and spend time with Wyatt.

Leo: I know, but I just don't trust Chris or indeed like him very much. I'll come back later to see Wy, by the way I've fixed that baby monitor, the fuse needed changing that's all.

Leo placed the monitor on the table and triumphantly flicked the switched, the machine fluttered into life and immediately the sound of Wyatt's cries filled the room. Groaning, Piper made her way up the stairs as Leo bade farewell and orbed out, promising to call soon.

Paige and Phoebe just about had time to roll their eyes before Chris entered the living room.

'Hi, are we ready?' he asked, his eyes scanning the room, 'where's Piper, I know Meatloaf thinks that '2 out of 3 ain't bad', but personally I prefer 100 attendance.'

'I'm here' Piper said wearily as she sank back into the armchair.

'Piper!' he exclaimed in his best 'rallying the troops' voice, 'that's not the attitude to have, we 've got 2 demons to vanquish today and then…..

'Look' Piper interrupted testily 'you try being enthusiastic about Demon hunting when you're trying to comfort a crying baby every two minutes'

'Oh come on it can't be that hard' he countered

"Oh really? Well would you like to try it?"

"Folks" Paige broke in "can we stop the arguing and get to the point…?"

As if on cue Wyatt's cries filled the room once again. Piper made to get up, but was stopped by Chris.

'No Piper, you stay here and I'll go'.

' What?' The charmed ones chorused in unison

' I'M trying to help' he replied

" Well why not?" Phoebe told Piper "you've tried, I've tried, Paige has tried, none of us can get him to stop crying for longer than 5 minutes so why not let Chris have a go."

" Fine" Piper conceded.

"Fine" Chris said "and when I come back down I expect to see you three researching ways in which to vanquish the Slurry demon ok?"

" OK!" they chorused

Chris sighed, turned on his heal and scurried upstairs ' come on Wy, I think we need a little brother to brother chat.' he muttered.

Back in the living room Paige flicked through the book of Shadows as Phoebe and Piper began organising possible potion ingredients. The sound of footsteps coming from the baby monitor signalled that Chris was walking across the nursery floor.

Piper leaned over and turned the volume up, ' well Mr Nanny lets see how long it takes you to quiet him' she sniggered.

Up in the nursery, oblivious to the audience downstairs, Chris picked up the crying baby and settled him down on his lap.

'Hey Wyatt' Chris cooed in a hushed tone that was in stark contrast to his usual sarcastic drawl. "Look little, well, big brother you need to stop crying, sush sush"

Down in the living room the silence was broken by the sound of smashing glass as the potion bottle slipped out of Pipers hand's and on to the floor.

"Come on Bro" Chris continued "you need to quieten down so that mom and the aunts can vanquish the nasty demon who makes you bad, and if you keep crying Dad is going sense you, and the last thing we want is for him to turn up, cos I really don't want to talk to him, seeing as he hates my guts right now"

Soothed by his brother's voice, Wyatt's sobs began to subside and he began babbling.

" Right, so now I've stopped the crying, what do I have to do to get you to go to sleep?" Chris pondered.

By way of an answer Wyatt simply blew bubbles and continued burbling.

" Do you want a story?" Chris asked

"yahudg"

" Well I assume that's a yes," Chris thought. He smiled thinking of all the times he and Wy had pestered their parents for a bedtime story as a way of delaying the moment when they had to go to sleep.

"Ok, so story….Once upon a time …err……there were two little boys who were both witch/whitelighters. The oldest boy was called Wyatt,and his younger, dashingly handsome and extremely intelligent brother was called Chris. ……..They lived happily with their mum and dad until one day….. Wyatt turned evil, so his little brother, who, loved his big brother ever so much, decided to go back to the past and change time, so that Wyatt wouldn't become evil, but…..um…. it was really hard because Wyatt wouldn't stop crying and drove us all mad. …. The End'

Chris looked down and saw that Wyatt's eyes were closing, he began to rock him gently, until soon Wyatt was sound asleep in his arms.

Two floors below, the sisters sat in silence. Paige and Phoebe were looking at Piper who seemed to be frozen in her seat staring into the middle distance.

Paige was the first to find her voice. "Well I guess congratulations are in order".

Phoebe attempted a small laugh ' yeah your gonna be a mom again'

Still Piper remained dumbfounded in her armchair.

" It explains a lot you know" Paige explained "how he knew us all, knew the book, the house, why he cares so much about Wyatt…."

"Not to mention why he was always so secretive" Phoebe added.. "He's gonna flip big time when he finds out that we know."

Piper suddenly came to life. 'No!' she shouted jumping to her feet.

Paige: Huh?

Piper: we're not going to tell him we know, not just yet

Phoebe: why the hell not? The poor guy thinks we all hate him, carrying this burden all alone…

Piper: oh cut the empath crap!

Phoebe: Piper!

Paige: she may have a point. He obviously didn't tell us for a reason, we need to respect that at least.

Piper began pacing up and down in front of the fire place, her hands swinging at her sides as if she didn't know what to do with them. ' I just….i..need time ok…

I don't know what to do …what to think…. what to say….what to feel….i …..i think its best that we…"

Piper stopped abruptly as footsteps were heard coming across the landing and Chris came back down the stairs. ' Wyatts snoozing away.. well like a baby!" he announced pleased with himself.

He paused, noting the broken potion bottle on the floor, Paige was sitting on the edge of the armchair, and Phoebe stood next to her, both suddenly became intent on examining the tips of their shoes. Meanwhile Piper stood stock still by the fireplace, was now staring at him, well, more than staring at him he thought, scrutinizing him.

would best describe it.

"hey what's going on down here? Where's the potion and/or vanquishing spell?" he inquired.

"Potion?" Piper replied a little confused, whilst continuing to look him up and down.

"Uh huh" Chris began speaking slowly " the one i told you to work on"

"Potion! Yeah right potion" Paige said a bit too loudly.

" we' re on it!" Phoebe chimed in.

"Good" he replied, but before he could continue he felt Pipers gaze on him "…um Piper have I grown an extra head or something?"

"N No No" she stuttered.

"Well you keep staring at me"

"St Staring, I don't keep staring I was just, um just errrr just well…"

" OK, I don't know what has gotten into you guys, but we're getting no where here, so I'm going to go and follow up some new leads, you lot make the potion, and I'll come back later." With that he took one last look around the room and orbed out.

Phoebe: soooo, that went well

Paige: yeah, we really nailed that 'acting normal' routine

They looked over at Piper, who was busying herself by sweeping up the shards of broken glass. She stopped mid sweep, set the brush down, and turned to face her sisters. "you try finding out that your whitelighter, who you have been rude to, shouted at , suspicious of, and bitched about, is actually your long lost son, your brave little boy, who's travelled back through time to help his family and got nothing but abuse, and then _you_ tell _me_ how to act _normal"_ She was shouting now, normally she would be worried about waking Wyatt, but she didn't care. " I'm his _mothe_r, his _mother,_ and I've treated him like dirt! Why didn't I see it? It seems so obvious…..he's got leo's eyes, my hair, dads jaw line….."

Paige: Its okay Piper, I mean, we missed it too.

Piper: you don't understand

Phoebe: yes we do, he pulled the wool over our eyes too!

Piper: NO YOU DON'T , you two don't have any

children

As soon as the words were out of her mouth she regretted it. ' Oh Pheebs' she turned toward her younger sister who, shocked by Pipers words, looked as if she had been kicked in the stomach. " I'm sorry, I forgot about you and Cole I , I "

"it's OK" she replied.

" No its not, it's."

"look" Paige interrupted, sounding slightly shaky herself. " I say that we all go to bed, get some rest and discuss this in the morning"

"Yes" Piper agreed " I think that would be a good idea"

The next morning, following an extremely restless night, Piper uncharacteristically was the last person to wake up. She entered the kitchen to find Phoebe and Paige already up and dressed.

"morning" she said, putting an end to the hushed conversation that they seemed to be having.

'morning' the younger witches replied.

'so?' Paige began

' So' Piper answered 'I've been tossing and turning all night, but at least I 've been able to set things straight in my head"

'And?' Phoebe asked

' And' Piper replied ' I have decided that my energy is best spent in being nicer to Chris, rather than beating myself up. But, I remain by what I said yesterday, we are not to tell him, that we know, not just yet anyway. I'll find a way as soon as the time is right. Okay?'

'Okay' Phoebe said ' its just you see, Paige and I were wondering, well, what about Leo? Chris might not even be conceived if you two don't get back together"

Piper suddenly felt her checks start to burn and a pink flush made its way up from her neck to her cheeks. " I um don't envisage a problem there"

"What!" Paige probed.

" you know the other week, when Chris told us that Wyatt was going to become evil, and how I was really upset, so you two went out so that Leo and I could talk? Lets just say that he , err _comforted_ me"

"oh"

"yeah, so I don't think that Chris need worry about that"

"Alrighty " said Phoebe. " we're all agreed then, the plan is, be nice to Chris and act 'normal' and vanquish some demons like usual"

They all raised their coffee mugs in a toast 'to acting normal' they agreed.

One week later.

' Piper' Chris groaned, raising his eyes heaven ward as his mother disappeared downstairs. He collapsed onto the sofa and waited for her come back.

This, he thought, had got to be one of the strangest weeks on record. First off, Monday, after saying yes to Piper's offer of refreshments, to his surprise he had received a glass of milk and a cookie, instead of the coffee and doughnut that she had doled out to everyone else. Wednesday afternoon he found Piper in his room as P3, with an armful of his dirty laundry offering to 'throw it in the machine' for him, Friday she asked him if he would prefer sleeping on the sofa in the manor as opposed to the club, and if that wasn't bizarre enough she had taken to feeding him at every opportunity. To top it all off, he had orbed in here today to collect the girls to go on a demon hunt, only for Piper to shout at him for leaving the house with only a t-shirt on.

' I would have worn a coat' he had explained ' except you took it'

' I know' she had replied ' there was a big hole in the sleeve, I wanted to sew it up, I'll just go get it'

It was almost as if she knew he was his son, but Chris rationalized, that was impossible, as the only person who knew was Wyatt, and as his sole vocabulary seemed to consist of 'mamma' and 'dadda', he was pretty sure that he was safe there. So, safe in this knowledge, he was kind of enjoying the attention, as it had been so long since he had been 'mothered' properly, although the coat thing was annoying.

Before he could think about it any further, the sound of Wyatt singing nonsense to himself filled the room.

'aw how cute' said Phoebe who was decanting potion into bottles.

'hey, where is Wy?' said Chris looking round the attic.

'In his room ' said Paige, as she thumbed through the book of Shadows.

"then how come we can hear him?"

"er through the Baby Monitor dummy!" she exclaimed. " you know, big white thing, looks like a walkie talkie"

Chris felt his temperature begin to rise and his pulse begin to race. " but" he squeaked, trying to keep his voice calm. " It's broken, its been broken for weeks"

"yeah well Leo fixed it"

"when?" Chris asked, already sensing the answer

" On Sund…" Paige stopped short, realising what she was saying, she looked to Phoebe, who also seemed to realise that it was too late. Chris had added 2+2 and it most definitely equalled 4.

"She knows" he whispered. " you all do"

Paige and Phoebe could do nothing more than nod. Chris took a deep breath. He felt the blood rush to his head, his heart seemed to be pounding in his ears.

"know what?" Piper bounced into the attic, "here you are, one neatly laundered and repaired coat."

"you know, what I know" Chris repeated.

"No, I don't know what you know" continued Piper, a little too brightly. She looked to her sisters for some help.

"he knows" Phoebe said.

"knows what!" Piper said through clenched teeth, giving her sisters a "keep up the act" look.

"That I'm your son"

The words, that he had wished to say for so long, came tumbling out of his mouth and seemed to hang in the air.

Piper realised that there was no going back now, and began to babble,"ah, that you see, we, well rather I, um"

Before Piper could continue, Paige and Phoebe thought it best to make their exit.

" We'll leave you guys to talk, just be an orb away if you need us!" Paige cried as she shoved Phoebe out of the door.

The door closed behind them and Chris and Piper were left facing each other. Chris sighed. He had invisaged this moment , how he would break the news to Piper, he had played it over and over in his head, rehearsed his lines as if in a play, but now he was here, he couldn't remember any of it. His mind was a blank, his palms were sweating, his brain had turned into cotton wool and he wasn't sure if he could trust his voice at all.

Piper walked over to the sofa, sat down and beckoned Chris to come and join her. He walked over to her slowly, thinking it best to avoid sudden movements in his present state. He perched on the edge of the sofa, about as far away from her as was possible without falling on the floor.

" I don't bite" said Piper.

" I know, it's your bark that I'm sacred of" said Chris.

Piper forced a smile. "why didn't you tell us who you were, or me at the very least?" she asked.

"The same reason that you didn't tell me that you found me out" he replied. " I just didn't know how. I couldn't find the words. Plus, to begin with I figured it would be easier if you got to know me before I dropped the bombshell, but then our relationship didn't exactly get off to a great start, and I realised that telling you was getting to be harder and harder. Until in the end I decided that I would keep my identity a secret. Trouble is, I never anticipated that it would take me so long to save Wyatt, nor how much you would distrust me."

"I'm sorry" Piper leant to touch his hand, Chris flinched and pulled away. Piper looked up at him confused.

"What is it? I know I said some horrible things to you recently, but I didn't know who you were"

"It isn't that"

"Then tell me,. am I such a terrible mother that you can't bare to even hold my hand?"

" No!" Chris practically shouted. "No, you're a great mom"

"Then what is it? 'cause I'm really at a loss here, as to why my baby boy hates me"

" I don't hate you" Chris cried. "I could never hate you. It's just" Chris felt his cool , calm exterieur, breaking, at the sight of his mothers eyes looking at him with concern.

He decided to go with the half truth. " it's just I haven't felt loved by you in a very long time"

Piper, interpreting this comment to refer to the many months that had elapsed since Chris had arrived in the past, moved herself further along the sofa to be closer to her son

" I know, sweetie and I'm sorry"

" Stop saying you're sorry, it's not your fault, none of this is your fault." Chris' voice was wavering now, she was so close that he could smell her perfume, the perfume that she wore everyday, including the day she died. The image of her dead body lying on the ground flashed before his eyes. Before he could react, he felt a pair of strong arms round him, as Piper pulled him into a hug. He collapsed into his mothers arms, tears welling up in his eyes.

They sat a while in silence, Chris resting his head on his mothers lap, as she stoked his hair. Chris felt at peace for once. He felt at ease, loved, calm, he hadn't felt like this in 8 long years.

After a while he spoke. "where do we go from here then?"

"The kitchen? I can make you some waffles" Piper attempted some levity.

"That's not what I meant and you know it."

"We take it one step at a time, I guess. I want to get to know you properly. That and I need to adjust to being pregnant again, and having a 22 year old son.'

'Are you going to tell Leo about me?"

" Do you want me to? I mean it might make it easier, he'll stop wanting to strangle you at least"

"No, I think it's best if we keep it between us for now, he'll find out soon enough."

"If that's what you want"

"It is"

"Now, lets go and find your Aunts as they're most likely dying from curiosity.

"Right".

Chris stood, he took Pipers hand and helped her from the sofa. She smiled at him and ruffled his hair, then she linked her arm through his, and they orbed downstairs to put Phoebe and Paige out of their misery.


	2. Curiosity almost kills the C witch

Chapter 2: Curiosity almost kills the C…Witch.

"Phoebe!" Chris said exasperated. " Read my lips, THE ANSWER IS NO"

A month had passed since Chris' little secret had been blown, and he could honestly say that he had never been happier. His relationship with Piper was developing at a rate of knots, she remained ignorant of her own untimely death, there was no sign of Leo returning from Elder land anytime soon, and they'd managed to take down a record number of demons. There was only one teeny tiny problem, and it went by the name of Phoebe.

" Please Chris pretty please" his aunt pleaded.

"Are you pestering him again?" Paige inquired as shuffled into the kitchen to get her morning caffeine injection.

"Yes"-said Chris.

" Come on Paige" Phoebe turned to her baby sister. " Aren't you in the least bit curious"

" A little sure, but I prefer to have a more que será será attitude about it"

" Attitude about what?" Piper questioned as she strolled in from her morning date with the toilet bowl. " Oh wait, let me guess, the future right? Phoebe, Chris has already said no, about a zillion times"

" Please, just my kids names, or scratch that, just my husbands name, I mean it'll save me so many wasted dates, if I can just find the man I'm supposed to be with."

"Phoebe" Chris set his mug down. " For the billionth time, it is irrelevant. If, I manage to stop Wyatt from becoming evil, then I will be CHANGING the FUTURE. Thus, the FUTURE will be CHANGED, there will be people alive who in my timeline are dead, and vice versa. So there's no use in me telling you about any cousins that I _may_ have, because, for all I know it could all be completely CHANGED when I go back. You know, like Piper seeing that she was going to have a girl and then ending up with Wyatt."

"Yeah but"

"But, I'm going to the club to see to the delivery" with that he rose, kissed Piper on the cheek and orbed out.

"Its not fair" Phoebe wined. " It's ok for you" she pointed to Piper " you already know who your husband is and your kids, me and Paige here have to fumble along in the dark waiting for a sign"

"Speak for yourself Missy" said Paige. " I 'm not "fumbling" anywhere, except maybe work, which I'm going to be sooo late for if I don't leave now." She grabbed the keys to her car and dashed out the door. " I'll see you later".

"I'm so glad she decided to return to social work" Piper commented. " She's been so much happier"

"Yeah" Phoebe was barely listening. Her mind was still fuming over Chris. " I'm going to work from home today, they're having my office painted. I'll be in the attic if you need me."

Piper sighed, " Looks like I'm doing the dishes again".

Up in the attic Phoebe tried to concentrate, but found that her mind kept wandering, envisaging all the possible future children she might have. Her eyes travelled around the room coming to stop on the family tree that was hanging on the wall opposite her. She smiled, as a plan slowly began to form in her mind…

2 hours, 3 loads of washing, two sets of dishes, a pile of ironing and a casserole later, Piper climbed the stairs to the attic to bring Phoebe her mid morning coffee.

She found her younger sister practically bouncing round the room in a state of excitement.

"Piper, Piper" she cried. " I have THE most amazing idea,"

"What?" the oldest Halliwell asked

" I've figured out how we can find out about our future lives without asking Chris"

"Phoebe!"

"No, come on just hear me out! You know how we have the family tree hanging on that wall right?"

"Yes"

" And how Chris said that in the future, they don't live here, cos its been turned into a museum right?"

"Yes"

"And how, in the museum everything has been preserved, left how it was when we used to live here, do you see where I'm heading with this?"

"erm no"

" Piper! Look, if everything is the same, then in the future, our family tree will still be hanging on that wall. Our _updated_ family tree. All we have to do is open the portal, go to the future, take a peak at the family tree and then nip back"

"Whah- No, no, no, no, N-O"

"You're just as bad as Paige. Don't you want to know if you have more kids, get remarried?"

"Well…."

"Well?"

"Well… even if I was interested it's like Hello! Personal gain!"

" Not really" Phoebe reasoned." I mean I can't concentrate enough to vanquish demons whilst knowing that my future husband is out roaming the streets of San Francisco, so really it would be a help"

"Well… if you put it like that" Piper began to weaken, as deep down she was just as curious as Phoebe, though she would never admit as much.

" I knew it! I knew you'd say yes" Phoebe jumped up and began tracing the familiar marks on the wall.

" Hold on" Piper cautioned. "What about Paige? Don't you think we ought to wait for her, I'm mean we need the power of three to open the portal?"

" I suppose" Phoebe muttered.

"hey" Piper thought " How did you get the spell from Chris anyway? He'd never gie it to you"

"I kinda found it, it was laying around" Phoebe admitted.

"Laying around where?" Piper was confused, her younger son was a bigger neatness freak then she was.

"laying around in the bottom draw of his cupboard in P3" Phoebe confessed.

"Phoebe!" Piper admonished " He's my son, if any one is going to riffle through his things then its going to be me!"

" I know, I know" the empath replied " But while we're on the subject, we can't let Chris know we're going to the future, 'cos he'll only try and stop us or lecture us or something"

"fine" Piper said, as she was none to fond of his little "talks" either. " I won't tell Chris"

"Won't tell me what?" Chris asked as he orbed into the attic.

"nothing!" Phoebe cried,a bit too loudly.

" See ordinarily I'd stay and force a confession out of you, but I don't have time, I need to get going" he said.

"Going? going where?" Piper inquired.

"The underworld" Chris replied. " I got a new lead on who might turn Wyatt, so I need to go undercover for a while."

"how long will you be gone?" Piper demanded. " I'm not sure it's entirely safe for you to go…"

"Mum" Chris interrupted "I'm 22, not 12, you can't stop me. I'll be back in a bout 10 days, 2 weeks tops ok? I love you"

"At least take a coat" the oldest sister shouted to the retreating cloud of orbs.

"well " said Phoebe, " at least we won't have to worry about him finding out."

6pm

Paige pulled her car into the driveway of the manor, relieved to be home from work at last. She'd had 'one of those days', the photocopier had broken, her computer had crashed a record breaking 4 times in a row, she'd spilt coke down her white blouse, and had just spent an hour sat in a traffic jam. All she wanted was a nice warm bath, a mug of hot chocolate and a demon free evening in front of the TV. She pushed opened the front door, dropped her keys on the table and yelled " I'm home". Almost as if on cue, Phoebe ran from the kitchen, shoved a mug of coffee into Paige's hands and propelled her into the living.

"hey you're back! " she babbled " how was your day? Get up to much? You'll never guess what me and Piper did, we.."

" We" said Piper who had now entered the living room " said that we would give Paige 10 minutes to relax when she came in from work"

Paige in the meantime had managed tot sit down without spilling her coffee, gave Piper a confused look. " Is there any reason why Phoebe is on auto-witter this evening?"

Piper sighed "Long story short, Missy Phoebe wants us to take a trip to the future"

"what! why?"

"Its not just me!" Phoebe babbled. "Piper wants to go too!"

Paige groaned " Is this still part of your 'who am I going to marry kick?'"

'Sorta' Phoebe admitted. "Please, we'll be 5 minutes that's all, and then I promise I'll shut up, we wouldn't bother you, but we need a power of 3 spell"

"You two have no self-control" Paige lectured.

" Is that a yes?" Phoebe asked.

"lets just get it over with" Paige replied. " I have a date with the bath tub tonight."

The trio made their way up t the attic, where Phoebe finished the outline of the triquetra. They chanted the incantation, and the portal swirled open..

"I'm not sure about this" Piper worried "what if something happens?".

" Relax, we hop in, read the chart, hop back that's all it'll take" Phoebe pleaded.

" Alright"

"Yay!" She grabbed her sisters' hands and they stepped into the bright green light.

Stepping out on the other side, they entered an attic much like the on they had just left, except it was a lot more cluttered, and there were display cabinets, and red velvet ropes cordoning the room into different sections.

" There it is" Phoebe squealed with delight as she ran towards the peace of parchment bearing the Halliwell family tree. It was the same as the one they had in 2004, except that it was now slightly bigger, and was behind a sheet of Perspex glass.

"Phoebe, Phoebe" Phoebe muttered running her finger down the glass "….there I am! Lets see, Phoebe Halliwell marries Robert Clune, oohhhh, and we have Paloma born 2007, Paula born 2008 and Pelagia born 2012, 3 little girls awww how cute!" she gushed.

"What about me?" Piper demanded, overcome by curiosity herself.

" Piper…." Phoebe scanned quickly along the line. "Ah, marries Leo, Yadda Yadda, Wyatt, Yadda," fortunately in her haste, she didn't notice the 'date of death' printed ominously beneath Pipers name "Chris, Yadda and ….."

"What!"

" Victor, born 2006"

" Another boy" Paige smiled. "congratulations"

" Right, just got time to look for Paige.." Phoebe paused. "That is if you want to?"

"Oh why not, you dragged me all the way here anyway" Paige said.

, "

"here we are, Paige Matthews, marries some dude called Kyle Brody …anyway….you have Primrose aka 'Rosie' born 2008, Phillippa , aka 'Lil' born 2010, and ohmy god…."

"what?" Piper and Paige squealed.

"its, its uh"

"Pheebs what is it? We don't have time for this!" Piper cautioned.

" . well there's a 3rd daughter, the oldest,"

" And? what's the problem, did I give her some kind of stupid name like Fifi or Buffy or something?" Paige questioned.

"No"

"Oh for godsakes just let me see" Paige pushed Phoebe out of the way, she found her branch of the tree, looked at the glass, and read the inscription once, twice, three times, as she did so a feeling of nausea began to rise in her stomouch

"Wossit say?" Piper pushed closer, looking over Paige's shoulder she read aloud "Poppy-Jo Halliwell, bornMarch 9th, 1993, what the….?"

Suddenly, before anyone had time to say anything, they heard the sound of the front door opening downstairs, and a disembodied voice saying "first stop on our tour of the Halliwell Manor.."

"Quick! it must be some kind of Tour group coming, we gotta get out of here" Phoebe cried.

Piper and Phoebe ran toward the portal, they turned back to find Paige rooted to the spot, still staring at the chart,

"Paige! We have to go they're gonna find us!" Phoebe whispered.

The footsteps were getting closer and closer, "Paige!" Piper hissed.

Paige suddenly snapped out of her trance, glanced at the door and dived for the portal, the three of them jumped through, as it closed behind them, just as the tour group reached the attic door.


	3. Wounds heal, but scars remain for life

Safely back in 2004 once again, Piper and Phoebe were in the kitchen making coffee to take to a pale looking Paige who was sat frozen on the sofa, looking as if someone had literally just pulled the rug from under her.

" I don't think she's blinked in the past two minutes" whispered Phoebe as the kettle boiled.

" I think she's in shock" Piper replied.

"but why?" Phoebe asked.

"I don't know" said Piper in a measured tone. " lets take her a drink and find out."

The two oldest sisters walked into the sunroom. They handed Paige her drink.

"Well?" Phoebe said questioningly. " according to that tree you should have an 11 year old daughter by now!" She tried to make light of it.

Paige slowly raised her eyes upwards. Piper and Phoebe were staring at her as if they expecting a response, but there wasn't one. There were no cries of "but that's impossible!" or " are you joking!" just one long deafening silence. Paige's mind was racing, what should she say? should she deny it? She asked herself, and the realised that the silence had spoken for her, and that it was too late to try and act surprised. "So this is it" she thought, " on one of the crappiest days in the universe, I have to come home and recount the second worst day of my life, all because Phoebe, wanted to know who she's bloody going to marry." She felt her fingers clench, and looked up to find her sisters sat on either side of her, expressions of concern on their faces.

"It's ok Paige" Piper said softly, stroking her younger sisters back, "you don't have to tell us"

"No, its alright" Paige croaked, in an oddly high pitch voice which didn't seem to belong to her. " I want to tell you"

Paige took a deep breath and began " As I've said before, I tended to walk on the wild side during my teenage years, drinking , drugs, sex…the year I turned 15, my rebellion was in full flow, and I got invited to this party at a friends house, I got chating to this guy there, an we ended up , well you know, and then he left and I never saw him again. Anyway..i didn't find out that I was pregnant until I was 5 months gone, I was high as a kite most of the time, so I never really knew what day of the week it was, let alone the actual date. I didn't know what to do, I couldn't tell my parents, they would have been so mad, so I kept it to myself. They found out though, you see, when I discovered I was pregnant, I decided to give up all the crazy stuff, and my mom realised that something big must have happened to have made me stop sneaking out of my bedroom window at night."

"What did she say" Piper asked.

" She was really good about it, actually. Well as good as you can be when you find out your daughter is 7 months pregnant. She helped me break the news to dad, took me to the hospital so I could get checked out and all that,…… I had a scan, it was a little girl………. They told me that they would stand by me, whatever I wanted to do."

Paige paused as she took a sip of her coffee, mentally preparing herself for what was coming next, her voice began to quiver as she spoke. " I went into labour a week early,…….. mom drove me the hospital. I've never experienced so much pain in my whole life" she glanced up at Piper, who silently nodded.

" But then, after 10 hours it was all over, and and, and" the tears began rolling down Paige's face now, as she fought a losing battle to keep her voice steady. " I waited for them to give me the baby to hold,….. they wouldn't, they said they were just taking her away to do some tests, but they never brought her back, …… my baby died, died and it was all my fault!"

Paige collapsed into Pipers arms, her entire body shook as she sobbed, burying her head into Pipers shoulder. Piper wrapped her arms around her youngest sister, rubbed her back and rocked her gentle back and forth. Phoebe looked on, horrified by what she had just heard. She'd not expected this. Neither of them had.

Paige's sobs eventually gave way, but she kept repeating over and over " it's my fault"

" No. it wasn't your fault sweetie" Piper soothed " How could it be?"

" It was" Paige insisted. " I took drugs, I didn't go for any scans for the first 7 months, it was my fault, totally my fault." The suddenly something inside her just snapped. She needed to get out of there, gathering all of her strength, she rose from the sofa.

" If you guys don't mind, I'd like to be on my own right now," and before they had chance to respond she orbed out and up to her room, leaving Phoebe and Piper alone in the living room, listening to the sobs coming from upstairs.

2 weeks later.

Piper stood in the kitchen making pancakes for breakfast. The sun was streaming through the window, and the radio was playing, as the oldest sister reflected on the events of the past two weeks. Paige, since her emotional breakdown had become withdrawn, she wasn't eating, she could be heard crying late into the night, she was barely sleeping, and what was most disturbing of all, she was refusing to talk about the whole thing. Every time that either she or Phoebe tired to broach the subject, they were brushed away. Phoebe was blaming herself for the whole incident, insisting that if it hadn't been for her, then Paige would never have had to relive the nightmare scenario. As for Piper herself, she split her time between worrying about Paige, and worrying about Chris, who had returned from his 'trip' with burn marks down his back and was remaining tight lipped over how he got them.

Phoebe entered the kitchen in search of some food "morning" She called.

"morning" Piper replied. " Did you sleep well?"

"yeah, like a baby" The word froze in her throat, as she realised that Paige had just appeared.

"don't stop on my account" the youngest sister said as she took an apple and orbed out.

"me and my big mouth" Phoebe moaned.

"we just need to give her time" Piper said. " she must obviously come to terms with it

in the future, well, enough for the baby to get a mention on the family tree"

"true " Phoebe agreed.

" I think we should all try and have a nice family meal tonight what do you say?"

"I say it sounds great" said Chris as he orbed in and headed to the coffee pot. "where's Paige this morning?"

"gone to work"

"already? She sure has been acting strangely lately, ever since I came back form my trip she's barely said 2 words to me, and I thought I was her favourite nephew!"

"yeah, she's just got some issues to work through, she'll been fine soon though" Piper assured him.

Over at Social Services, Paige was sat at her desk. Her 'to do' pile on her desk was over flowing, yet the young witch preferred to gaze out the window. 'I can't let it happen again' she thought. After she had left hospital, all those years ago, she suddenly found that every time she saw a baby in the street, she imagined it was her baby, she convinced herself that it was her baby's face staring back up at her, that it had all been a terrible dream and that her baby was alive after all, that an evil nurse had kidnapped her or something. That was when she had started drinking more and more heavily, to try and numb the pain, and bloke out those thoughts. Each year, around her baby's birthday, she imagined what she might have looked like. One year, 1996, she saw a little dark haired girl, that looked so much like Paige herself at that age, that she'd convinced herself that this was somehow her missing daughter, and had trailed her round the city centre for half an hour, until she had realised the absurdity of the situation. 'No' Paige reiterated, I need to be strong this time'.

'Paige, Paige' the sound of her boss calling her name interrupted her reverie.

'Yes' she turned round to see Mr Cowen striding toward her

'Paige, there's a case I'd like your help with..i think you're the only one who can understand…"

back in the manor, Piper was busy baking a pie ready for that evenings meal, whilst Phoebe was sat typing away at her laptop.

"I was thinking" the advice columnist began. " Perhaps we ought to get Paige some professional help I mean, I think.."

However Piper never did find out what exactly Phoebe's thoughts were, as they were interrupted by an extremely pissed off Chris.

"Would some one care to explain" he seethed " why the time travel spell is no longer in my bottom draw?"

" I ..I..I have no idea" said Phoebe in what she hoped was her best 'innocent' voice.

"Really?" said Chris sarcastically. " Let me see, I find that my time travel spell is missing, one of your earrings mysteriously finds its way onto my bedroom floor, and I have been back 5 whole days and not once have you begged me to tell you the name of your future husband. I'm sensing a theme here"

"how do you know its mine?" said Phoebe weekly, gesturing to the earring.

" Don't try and change the subject! I know its yours 'cos mum can't wear costume jewellery and aunt Paige only ever wears the silver hoops that her parents gave her the Christmas before the died!"

"okay okay" Piper attempted to diffuse the situation. " We're busted. We may as well tell him"

"tell me what? That you're planning on going to the future?"

"No" said Phoebe slowly. "That we already did…."

Across town, Mr Cowen was filling Paige in on the details. " there was a car accident, and the child, well a little girl actually, she was thrown free, we believe, there weren't any eyewitness's. anyhow, the man who was driving, her father I believe, was killed out right. We don't know her name, she's refusing to talk to anyone, when they finish autopsy on her father, we'll be able to run a trace using dental records. She's got some cuts and bruises, and the hospital are going to keep her in for a few days in case she has delayed concussion. But, we thought perhaps you could speak to her, seeing as how you know, you were in a similar situation?…."

They reached the outer doors of the hospital. Paige sighed, she really, _really_ hated these places, but remembering how she felt all those years ago, she couldn't turn her back on this kid now, whoever she was.

The walked into A&E, and eventually found the room where the child was waiting.

She was aged about 9 Paige guessed, skinny, with red hair, that she seemed to be hiding behind. Paige's heart went out to her.

"Yes" Paige said, turning towards her boss. " Of course I'll help her".

Meanwhile over in Prescott street, Chris was working himself into a rage.

" you went to the future! I don't believe you. Do you know how dangerous that could have been? What the consequences could have been?"

"Chris calm down" Piper said. " we were there for like 5 minutes, no one saw us"

" you expect me to believe that do you? "

"Yes!" Phoebe cut in. " 5 minutes, we looked at the family tree on the wall and then we left"

"you looked at the family tree and then you left" repeated Chris in a high pitched voice mimicking his aunt " you looked at the.." holy crap. The implications of this suddenly dawned on him. "Shit! she knows" he thought beginning to panic, "she knows she's going to die, oh god, I should have told her, better that it came from me than from reading it on a wall…. Hey, but hang on, she looks remarkably calm for someone who's learnt that their gonna die in 15 years time."

"…..and obviously Paige is now upset."

Chris zoned back in to realise that Phoebe had carried on talking. "What?" he asked confused. " _Paige_ is upset?" he swung round to look at his mother. " you're not upset?"

"Me?" Piper was puzzled. "Why would I be upset, I found out that I'm going to have three handsome boys…but poor Paige.."

"Yes! She didn't notice" thought Chris mentally doing a little victory dance." its all ok for the moment…" "wait a sec" he asked. "I still don't understand why Paige was upset?"

" because of all the painful memories it brought back about her daughter" Phoebe explained.

"Memories?" Chris really was confused now. " How can she have memories? It's the future, none of it has happened yet, besides I know Lil and Rosie could be a handful at times but…"

" No stupid" Phoebe interrupted. " Her _eldest_ daughter"

" Poppy?" Chris babbled, still relieved that Piper unaware of her untimely demise " What about Poppy? She was never a problem, even went to Yale for.." oh crap.

He saw the look of shock on his mother and his aunt's faces and realised his mistake almost as soon as the words had left his mouth.

"You mean to say that Poppy is alive in the future" Piper asked incredulously.

Shit! Shit! Shit !Shit! Chris decided it was too late to play the innocent now. "yes" he replied.


	4. Don't shoot the messanger

"What!" Piper screamed "how is that possible?"

" it's a long story" Chris hedged.

"Well you'd best start talking mister!" Phoebe ordered.

"Its not really my story to tell, its complicated, its" Chris babbled.

"I don't care!" Piper began to get annoyed. " You're going to sit your butt down there and tell us"

Chris looked up at his mother, who stood over him, arms folded, mouth set in a line. He'd seen that look many times in the future, especially the time she caught him hanging out of his bedroom window having a secret cigarette, and realised that there was no point in arguing.

"Alright, Alright" he raised his hands in mock defeat. " I shouldn't be telling you this but here goes.."

Over in the hospital, Paige, after a hushed conversation with Mr Cowan, knocked on the door of the little girls room, and walked in.

"Hi" she said, after getting no response other than a brief nod of the head, Paige grabbed a chair and pulled it up along side the bed,

"nice hair colour" she said indicated, " I know they say that blonds have more fun, but I think us red heads are the best ", she thought she saw a small smile appear on the girls face, but it was hard to tell through all the hair. " I might change it again soon though, I'm always experimenting,…. this one time in high school, I had peroxide streaks put in the front and I ended up looking like a cross between the bride of Frankenstein and a badger!"

"its not real" the girl muttered.

"no?" Paige asked, pleased that the girl had at last started to speak.

" No, I went to a sleepover last night, me and my friends put one of those temporary mousse things on"

"well that's sensible" Paige replied, "after all choosing one's hair colour is a serious business, you can't rush into these things"

"I guess"

"I'm sorry, I'm being rude , I haven't introduced myself, I'm Paige, Paige Matthews" Paige said, hoping to perhaps coax a name out of the girl.

"There's a girl in my class named Paige" the girl replied.

'Not the answer I was expecting but at least she's still talking' Paige thought.

"Really?" Paige said." I've not met many other Paiges. I'll let you into a secret though, I used to hate my name. When I was your age I used to try and get people to call me by middle name, Olivia, because I thought that Olivia Newton-John was so glamorous in Grease. My parents refused though, kept insisting on calling me Paige, at least now I know why"

"I never liked my name either" the girl admitted "its too boyish, I was named after a character in Little Women"

"Which one" Paige was curious

"Josephine, I'm Jo, Jo Jenkins" said the Girl.

"well, hello Jo" Bingo, Paige smiled.

" Right" said Chris " Poppy didn't die, she was taken away by the elders, and given to another family, she…"

"wait a minute, rewind" Piper interupted."What have the friggin Elders got to do with this? They didn't even know Paige existed, let alone her daughter"

"That's not entirely true" Chris explained. "you see, Paige, like Wyatt, being the child of a witch/whitelighter, is more powerful than your average witch. When Wyatt was born, you had that magical blackout, now that didn't happen exactly with Paige's birth, as the power increases with each generation, so she is not as powerful as Wyatt will be, however there were a couple of seconds of a power blackout, more of a glitch really. Anyway the Elders tried to find out what had caused it, they investigated, but couldn't find anything, so the matter was put on a backburner so to speak. Now, after your mother died, they began to notice that she was watching over not only you three girls, but another little girl as well. Then after Sam's fall from grace, he began drinking heavily, and he was often heard telling stories about the little girl that he lost. Pretty soon the Elders put 2+2 together, and found out who Paige was, although they later denied this."

"But what has this got to do with Poppy" Phoebe asked.

"I'm getting to that part" Chris replied. "Anyway, the Elders decided to keep an eye on Paige, they were concerned, that as she wasn't growing up in a 'good' magical family that she maybe corrupted and convinced to use her powers for evil, especially as at the time there was no knowing that Prue was going to die, or that Paige would ever come and seek you guys out and learn to use her powers for good"

"hold on" it was Piper who interrupted this time. "Paige didn't have her witch powers growing up? It was Prue's death that released them?"

"No" Chris pointed out. "Paige always had her witch powers, it was Prue's death that _unbound_ them, but a witch's powers can also be unbound by an upper level Demon, which is what the Elder's most feared. Unfortunately for Paige, they guy she slept with at the party, was the grandson of a witch, he didn't know it, as the grandmother decided to raise her daughter, his mother, outside of magic, however the powers were still in his bloodline, they were just dormant. So when Paige got pregnant, the Elders decided to take action"

"what do you _mean take action?_" Phoebe asked.

"They thought that one witch who was unaware of her powers thus open to possible corruption was hard enough, but two of them together would be too big a risk, so they decided to take 'damage control' as they put it, and separate the two."

"But why tell Paige the baby had died? Why not convince her to have it adopted?" Piper puzzled.

"because they knew that Paige would never agree to it. She was adopted herself, she knew all to well about that hollow feeling that there is inside, the part of you that knows deep down that somewhere, there's someone who didn't love you enough to keep you, that they 'rejected' you when you were a tiny baby. Besides, if Paige was forced to give her child up for adoption, there was no guarantee that she wouldn't go looking for her child later in life. The elders thought it would be easier, to let her think the baby had died, that way she could grieve, and eventually get some closure on the whole affair"

"easier!" Piper fumed. "_easier, _they let her think her child was dead! She went down the road of drink and drugs and almost got swallowed up by it all! As for _closure_, we're here 11 years later and she still can't talk about it without being consumed by guilt and grief."

"look I know your angry, but don't shout at me" Chris told his mother. "I'm just telling you what I was told ok. I was barely 2 years old when all this came out"

"So she finds out then?" Phoebe interrupted.

"evidently" Chris drawled, his voice dripping in sarcasm.

"How?"

" I can't tell you futur.."

"don't even think about saying it!" bellowed Piper. " you have to tell us, this isn't some random person on the street, this is our baby sister, you aunt"

"I know" Chris cut her off. " but I've already said too much. You have to trust me, Paige and Poppy will find each other eventually, they're destined to."

"But" Phoebe began.

"No buts" Chris said firmly. " it will all work out, now promise me you won't say a word to Paige."

"I don't know.. I…we…alright.." Piper said slowly, not at all convinced, but wanted to avoid a showdown with her son.

"Phoebe?" he turned to his aunt.

"ok, I won't" she said, Chris sighed relieved, and turned his back to pour a glass of water.

"for the moment" she muttered to Piper, who nodded her head in agreement.


	5. boy problems

It was 2 days after Piper and Phoebe learned the truth about Paige's daughter, and Piper was at her wits end. Remarkably, Paige was not the primary source of Pipers anxiety. In fact on the very day that she and Phoebe had grudgingly promised Chris that they would keep their newly acquired knowledge about Poppy to themselves, Paige had come home from work in an upbeat mood, rambling about how some car crash victim had made her see the light, put her priorities in order, helped lift her from the fog of depression, realise that life should be lived to the full etc. Piper wasn't too sure about the ins and outs of the case, but her youngest sister seemed more positive than she had since their little jaunt to the future, so all was well in that department for the time being.

No, it was the men in her life that were driving Piper mad. Firstly Chris seemed to be more determined than ever to find the demon that turned Wyatt, and consequently was often 'out at all hours', refusing to say where he had been and who he was with. " I don't want you to worry" was his usual response, to which Piper replied wearily " the less you tell me, the more I worry" yet this logic appeared to be lost on Chris.

Then there was Wyatt. He had recently discovered that he could not only orb things to him, such as his bottle, soft toys, his dummy, but also he could orb _himself_. So he was using this to his advantage, and had begun orbing himself all over the place. Every time Piper attempted to bath him, change him or feed him some kind of food that wasn't to his liking, he would disappear into a cloud orbs, and quite often reappear in a random location about the house.

Finally there was Leo. After nearly 4 months of non-communication she had decided to summon him. There were 2 main reasons for this, firstly she wanted discuss ways in which they could control Wyatt's orbing, and secondly, she felt that it was time for him and Chris to sort out their issues, as Chris was obviously going to be around for the foreseeable, and she really didn't feel like playing the role of mediator, especially when she was pregnant. However, after 3 hours of calling her ex-husbands name with no success, she had gone to the attic and found that some one had left a white post-it note on Leo's behalf, telling her that his diary was rather full at the moment, so a meeting has been arranged for 3pm next Wednesday if that was convenient?.

Piper sighed. She decided to try and give Wyatt a bath one more time. "Come on young man" she said walking over to the playpen, only to find it empty. _Not again_!

"Wyatt!" she screamed.

On the other side of town Paige was preparing for her last visit with Jo before she left hospital and was put into a temporary care home. As she made her way towards the entrance she almost collided with her boss who was walking back to his car.

"Paige?" he said, "what are you doing here?"

"I've come to see Jo one last time" she replied, " I guess you were just completing the paper work"

" Indeed. I have a temporary foster home lined up for her. She will be able to stay there for a week, in which time we should be able to track down her uncle"

"Her uncle?" Paige inquired.

"Yes" Mr Cowan explained. " We ran a trace based on her fathers dental records and her name. Turns out Jo's mother died about 7 years ago due to complications in a kidney operation. The maternal grandparents are still alive, but they live in a residential home for the elderly. On Jo's fathers side, the grandparents have passed on, but there is an uncle, a David Jenkins."

"Well that's good," said Paige.

"Yes and no" Cowan replied. Yes, of course its good news that she does have one immediate family member alive. No, in that he is in the Army, and is currently on a tour of duty in Iraq."

"Oh"

" Exactly. He was last seen in down town Basra, so we're trying to get a message through to him as soon as we can…. but surely you know some of this, seeing as you have come to visit her everyday for the past three days? "

" I know" Paige said. " But we tend to talk about more trivial matters, hair, boys, films, things to help her take her mind off what happened, even if its for just 2 hours a day. It helps, because once I'm gone and she's alone with her thoughts, who knows what's running through her mind. I'm just trying to be a friend."

Cowan nodded. " Well keep it up Miss Matthews, as she could certainly do with all the friends she can right now."

"Wyatt!" Piper screamed.

"Mom!" Chris' voice preceded him as he orbed into the hall. " Mom" he continued, " you've got to keep Wyatt under control!"

"What?" Piper asked as she turned to face her grown-up son. Chris stood there fuming, holding his baby brother in his arms.

Relief washed over her, as she picked up Wyatt from his brother. "Where was he?" she asked.

"Where was he?" Chris spluttered. " He was interrupting my date that's where he was!"

"You had a date?" Piper suddenly became interested.

"Well, it as more like a, you know, sort of a, yes, ok fine, yes, I had a date and.."

"What was she called?" his mother interrupted.

"Alison, and she..Hey can we get back to the point here?"

" Well what did he do?" Piper asked, "Did he orb in when you were eating, or in the queue at the cinema or what"

"No" Chris reddened," we were smdsjdfhg"

"What? I couldn't hear what you said" Piper grinned; now beginning to enjoy herself.

" We were..kissing all right, happy now? We were at the bar in P3 kissing and next thing I know , my baby-older-brother is sitting on my lap…its not funny!" he shouted, as his mother unsuccessfully fought back the urge to giggle.

"I'm sorry..its just too funny" she laughed. "Is that where you've been mysteriously disappearing to for the past couple of days? You've been on dates?"

Chris remained silent, his face growing redder and redder.

" I take it that's a yes"

"Maybe"

"Anyway" Pipers tone grew serious. " I'm glad you're here, I think its time we summoned your father"

"No way!" Chris shouted. "We don't need him, besides, he doesn't know that your pregnant, and you promised that I wouldn't have to speak to him, I don't need him, not now not _ever_"

"You might not, but your brother obviously does, this self orbing is a pretty big cry for attention. I know I haven't told him that I' pregnant yet, but he'll have to find out one day, and better to hear it from me now than for him to orb into the nursery one night and find two babies sleeping in there"

" You don't understand, you don't know what he did"

"Well tell me then Chris, help me understand."

However Chris was saved the trouble of answering by Phoebe, who fell through the front door grasping for breath. " Premonition…demon….here…2 minutes…called ..Paige"

"Demon?" Piper asked, getting ready to strike a battle pose.

"I just got back to the office" Paige orbed in, cup of coffee in hand, " where is this ugly jack-ass"

"oh good , I do like it when I get a proper welcome" the demon interrupted as he suddenly shimmered into the living room. " and here's my gift to you" he continued as he launched an energy ball at the trio of witches.

"well I hope you kept the receipt" Piper shot back as she blew up the ball.

"Never mind I have a spare" he replied, and prepared to launch another, this time the girls were ready. The ball had barely moved 2 inches across the room when Paige screamed "energy ball", and it flew backwards , hitting its creator squarely in the chest, causing him to explode into hundreds of tiny pieces, one of which hit Chris on the shoulder, it tore the skin and a greenish liquid began to ooze from the wound.

"Chris!" Piper ran to her son. "Are you ok?"

"I don't feel so good…" he wobbled slightly on his feet.

"Its ok baby, you go and lay on my bed, and we'll go and look through the book of Shadows, and find out who did this to you" she reassured him.

5 minutes later, Piper entered the attic to find Paige and Phoebe mixing up a potion.

"Well?" the oldest witch asked.

"Bright side?" Phoebe answered. " We found the demon, and the antidote to give to anyone that has been effected by him, but…"

"but..why is there always a but…?"

"but..The side effects include sweating, nausea, stomach cramps, and delusions. but they should all wear off after about 12 hours"

"great" Piper sighed. "bring that down stairs when you've finished will you? I best go and warn Chris that he's in for a rough night."

Several hours later, the trio were gathered in Pipers room, keeping watch over Chris. The young white lighter was running a temperature, yet appeared to be shivering, as he kept drawing the bed sheets up around his neck. The "delusions" were in full swing as the silence was periodically interrupted by cries of "No! No! Get away from me!" and other incoherent ramblings.

"you guys should go get some sleep" Piper said to her sisters "I'll say here with him"

"no honey" Paige said, " you need to rest more than we do"

Phoebe nodded in agreement.

" I will" Piper promised. "I'll send Wyatt to magic school tomorrow and sleep during the day. But I can't see me getting 8 hours of shut eye whilst my son suffers"

Reluctantly Paige and Phoebe agreed and shuffled out to their respective bedrooms, promising to check on them first thing in the morning.

Piper meanwhile, pulled on a pair of PJ's and crawled in to bed next to Chris, wrapping her body round his as if to protect him from the outside world.

"Goodnight sweetie" she said softly as she kissed him on the check, and tried to settle down to sleep…..

After what seemed like 5 minutes, but was in reality about 5 hours, Piper was woken from her light doze by the sound of orbs. She sat up in bed blearily rubbing her eyes. She noticed a figure stood at the end of her bed. There in full ceremonial Elder-robes stood her ex-husband.

"quick Piper" he cried, "where's Wyatt?"…………


	6. I'm a Whitelighter get me out of here!

**A/N**;Thanks for all your reviews, they really do motivate me to write, so please keep them coming. Hopefully this next part will answer some of your questions.

Chapter 6:I'm a whitelighter get me out of here!

"wuh?" Piper asked, still half asleep.

"quick where's Wyatt" Leo repeated, a note of urgency in his voice, his eyes darted around the room looking for his son, suddenly he realised that Piper was not alone in bed.

"nice, real nice" his tone changed to a sarcastic drawl. " here I am worrying about my son, and there's you, shacked up with lover-boy…."

"Leo" Piper croaked.

"….i mean is this why you haven't called for me in weeks huh? As soon as my back was turned you get it on with _him _ of all people?..come on Piper you could have chosen any guy in the world, but no, you chose the one person I actually cannot stand! "

"Leo" Piper, drew back the covers and stepped out of bed " its not what you think.."

"Really?" he snarled before noting Piper's slightly swollen stomach "Oh this gets even better…your pregnant by him too? Ew Piper you're almost old enough to be his mother for gods sake"

If the situation hadn't been so serious Piper might have laughed at that comment, but as it was, she just needed to calm her ex-husband down. " Look, can we take this outside please? I don't want to wake Chris"

"We wouldn't want that now would we?" Leo shouted, " After all _kids_ need their sleep"

Too late. Chris stirred, and opened his eyes. As his vision slowly came into focus he realised who was in the room. "Oh crap" he muttered.

"I'll give you 'oh crap' you-wife-stealing-son-of-a-"

"Leo!" Piper shouted, grabbing her husbands arm and pushing him out into the hallway. " I will not have you turning up unannounced in the middle of the night, shouting the odds..now what is this about Wyatt?"

In the shock of discovering his wife in bed with her white lighter Leo had momentarily forgotten about the original reason for his visit. " I came to check he was ok, I could sense that he was in pain….it's a father-son bond we have."

"well there's no need to worry as he is fast asleep in Paige's room , and physically he is perfectly ok, which is what I would have told you at 3pm on Wednesday"

"3pm on Wednesday?"

"Yes, that informative post-it note you left me, explaining that the next available slot for you to see me was this Wednesday at 3pm"

"dammit! That must have been my secretary.."

"wait, _you have secretaries up there_?"

"Yes, all elders do, when we are busy, such as at the moment, they screen our calls so to speak, I must tell her to class your voice as 'urgent'."

"Yes, well you do that!"

"hey don't make me out to be the bad guy here, I 'm up there in elderland and all of a sudden I get a horrible chill that I only ever feel when members of my family are in extreme pain, so I orb in and find you snuggling up to that lying, cheating murdering waste of space!"

" I can explain"

"like hell you can! Come on then, this had better be good, I'm waiting"

" he is your son Leo" Piper whispered softly.

"who?" the elder seemed confused.

"Chris. Chris is you son" Piper repeated, her eyes glancing towards the bedroom door and then back at Leo who had just slapped himself around the face. "what are you doing?"

"I'm sorry" he apologised, " I just zoned out there a second, I needed to wake up, what were you saying?"

"Chris…. Is…. Your…. son" Piper intoned carefully

Leo slapped himself again, and this time shook his head as if he were trying to get water out of his ears. " I really really must be going mad, I haven't been on a trip this big since 1976"

" Leo" Piper began to loose her patience "that boy in there, Christopher, is your or rather our, son"

"see now you keep saying that but.."

" and I will keep saying it, until you believe it, because it's the truth."

"but that's impossible..you and me …we split up…we ..are you sure its mine?"

"how dare you!" Piper spat. " Of course _he_ is yours, he has your eyes for one thing, and for another, it was Chris you sensed when you thought a member of the family was in pain, he was poisoned by a demon. And no, its not impossible, do you not remember that night?…4 months ago..me, you, 2 bottles of la Rioja and a trip down memory lane?…."

A look of slow realisation suddenly spread accross Leo's face. He staggered backwards, groping at the wall until he managed to steady his balance and avoid falling. "no, no, no.." he muttered. "this can't be true, not him, not my son…."

" I know it's a huge shock, it took me a while to get used to it..but you will , and I really think that once you and Chris …."

"No, Piper, seriously I can't do this.."

"Leo. Its okay you need time to adjust. All you have to do is go in there, apologise for shouting and we can take it from there."

"I need time.."

"Of course you do, we all do , we.."

"No, Piper I mean time by myself.. to think this all through.."

"What? You can't be serious! This is not the time to disappear on us"

"look I gotta go, take care of Wyatt for me and I'll be back real soon" he said standing up and making ready to leave.

"Leo!" Piper screamed. "You can't do this, you can't just leave us!" but it was too late, without so much as a backward glance, the elder disappeared in a cloud of white and blue lights, leaving Piper alone in the darkened hallway.


	7. So, we meet again

**Chapter 7:So we meet again..**

"Seems about right" was Chris' reply the following morning when Piper told him about Leos disappearing act. " you both reacted in ways that are fitting with your character. You found out I was your son, and tried to force feed me for a week, Leo found out and did a runner, así es la vida and all that."

And that was all he said. As much as Piper tried, Chris refused to speak about it further, so the subject had been dropped momentarily, at leat until Leo next decided to put in an appearance. If however they expected the mood in the halliwell house to become lighter now that everyone's deep dark secrets were out in the open, they were very much mistaken. It was a week later and all was still not well. Chris was pissed at Piper for telling Leo about him. Wyatt was pissed at Chris for placing a crystal cage around his play pen to stop him orbing around the house. Piper was pissed at Leo for abandoning them, and Phoebe was pissed at..well… herself.

"Its not fair" she had moaned that morning at breakfast. " I have the love life of an acrophobic nun!"

"How is that possible?" Piper questioned as she attempted to shovel eggs into Wyatt's mouth. " that guy Lewis asked you out, and what about Aaron from the office?"

" I can't go out with them!" she replied horrified at the thought.

"why not?" Paige asked as she injected herself with some caffeine

" because, I'm not supposed to marry _them_. I'm supposed to marry Robert Clune, remember?. And I've been doing the maths, if Paloma is born in 2007, I need to meet him ASAP."

"Well, I think that's what you get for meddling in the future" Piper replied absently.

" Oh don't you start, you sound just like Chris, whos already given me the extended disco version of that particular song" Phoebe groaned. " still what am I going to do…."

The upshot of the matter, was that the only member of the family who was not pissed, was Paige, who was actually glad to be sat at her desk in work, as i least she could escape that bad vibes that were floating in the air at the manor.

She shuffled the papers round on her desk, and stood about to make her way to the photocopier when out of the corner of her eye she saw the door to the office open and a someone running towards her.

"PAIGE" the voice cried, as two little arms were wrapped around her waist." I'm so glad you're here!" the voice continued a little muffled, as the speaker's head was buried in Paige's jumper.

Paige looked down to see a little girl with a mop of long dark hair clinging to her. "its okay" she soothed, mentally trying to figure out who on earth this child was, although the voice did sound familiar. She gently pulled the child away from her and nearly did a double take. With dark wavy hair and big brown eyes, pale skin and a slim build the child looked like a mini version of Paige herself.

_Throw in a New Kids on the Block T-shirt, some leg-warmers and a pair of Doc Martens and you've got me aged 10 _.thought Paige.

"its me" the child said, looking at Paige's' confused expression. "its Jo"

With the hair dye washed out, and the bandages that had been covering her face removed, Jo barely looked like the same little girl that Paige had last seen in hospital.

"Of

course it is!" Paige edged. " I was just a bit spaced out that's all. What's wrong?" Paige noticed Jo's tear stained face.

Before she had chance to reply, Mr Cowan strode over " ah yes Miss Mathews" he boomed. " could I have a word?"

"What's going on?" she asked as her boss pulled her to one side.

" we have a slight problem"

"how _slight_?"

" Well.. we placed Jo in a temporary foster home for a week, while we tried to track down her uncle"

"And?"

"_And_ her uncle was on patrol in Basra last week when a bomb exploded in the centre of town"

"he's dead?"

" we don't know, he's been reported missing, as they've yet to find a body. So, we made arrangements for Jo to be moved to a more permanent foster home, until we can verify what happened to her uncle. However, the woman she was going to be staying with, rang this morning to say that she has broken her leg, so won't be able to take her for another month, and unfortunately Jo's place at the temporary home has already been reallocated."

"oh"

"indeed. Now Jo seems to think that she's going be out on the streets…which is absolute nonsense" Mr Cowan finished, raising his voice to indicate that Jo had now moved to come and stand with them.

" of course it is" affirmed Paige.

"No it isn't ..no one wants me, I'm going to be all alone again" Jo replied tearfully.

" No you're not, because you can come home with me" The words were out of her mouth before Paige even had time to think about what she was saying.

"really?" Jo's eyes lit up.

"really?" Mr Cowan seemed confused.

"Yes, its only for a few days isn't it? And I've had all the necessary background checks, I'm a social worker after all. " Paige wondered how long her mouth was going to keep working independently from her brain.

"Are you really sure?"Mr Cowan asked incredulously.

"Sure, I'm sure. I mean I need to phone my sister and check but, I'm sure it'll be just…..

£££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££

"it is _soooo_ NOT fine" Piper bellowed down the phone. " have you gone completely mad?"

"she's just a little girl" Paige pleaded into the receiver. "its only for a few days."

"look sweetie I know you want to help, but we're not exactly the waltons are we? Jeez the Simpsons

look normal compared to us, all they have to worry about it being yellow.."

"yes, but"

"No, buts Missy" Piper ranted. "we have demons on the loose, an orbing baby, the 22 year old incarnation of my yet- to- be-born son and an angel who is AWOL, how do you expect us to explain away all that.?"

"Look Piper we'll find a way , I've said yes, and she's coming to stay ok?"

££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££

"…….and then she hung up on me. Can you believe it?" Piper finished filling Phoebe in on the events of the day.

Actually yes, Phoebe could believe that Paige had hung up, as being on the receiving end of Piper in bitch mode was not a pleasant experience. However Phoebe knew that it was more than her life was worth to admit that. Instead she settled for a non committing shrug, and was saved from a further answer by the sound of Paige's car pulling into the drive way.

"its alright" Phoebe reasoned " we just tell Paige that this kid can stay for one night, what can happen in one night? They're here now so there's nothing we can do"

"Fine" Piper muttered, sounding anything but. " doesn't mean I have to like it though, if you want me I'll be out back" She grabbed the laundry basket and headed for the washing line.

The front door opened and the sound of voices filled the hall.

"You just go on in and wait in the living room while I fetch your bags from the car" Paige told Jo.

"Okay" she replied nervously.

" Go on it'll be fine" Paige reassured her giving her a little push, before she disappeared back out the front door.

Phoebe sighed and dragged herself off the kitchen stool and slowly made her way toward the living room ready to introduce herself.

" Hi" She said as she rounded the corner "I'm…..Phoebe" she finished.

_Oh my God_! She thought, as she took note of the little girl_. I can't believe this_…………..tbc


	8. A Conversation Of Sorts

Chapter 8:A Conversation Of Sorts

_I can't believe this _Phoebe thought. She suddenly realised that she was grinning like an idiot at the little girl. _Good going Miss Phoebe, way to put her at ease._

"uh hi, I'm Jo" Jo replied her voice barely a whisper.

"of course you are"

"what?"

" I mean would you like a drink?" Phoebe babbled, without waiting for an answer she turned on her heal and marched back to the kitchen, calling for Piper as she went.

"what?" her older sister asked as she came through the back door. "is there a demon attack? Is it Chris?"

She eyed her younger sister who had a weird half smile on her face.

"No" She said. "Go into the living room and tell me what you see."

"Phoebe I really don't have time for this.."

"Please…"

"Okay" Piper dropped the empty laundry basket on the side and trudged into the front room. She saw a raven haired girl with her back to her sat on the sofa.

_So this must be Paige's new 'project'_. " Hi I'm Piper"

The girl turned round, " I'm Jo"

Piper caught sight of her face. "oh my…" she backed away and returned to the kitchen, leaving Jo to wonder if all the adults in this house were insane.

"Well?" Phoebe was on tender hooks as Piper bowled through the kitchen door.

"That girl…" Piper began. " she looks exactly like Prue…."

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Paige carried the last of Jo's bags over the threshold and dumped them inside the manor hallway.

"Hey" She found Jo sat on the edge of the sofa nervously playing with the hem of her skirt.

"Did you meet my sisters yet?"

"uh huh they seemed…." _Weird, crazy, bizarre_ "uh nice"

"cool. Well lets take your stuff upstairs shall we?"

Relieved to have something to do, Jo leaped up, grabbed her bag and followed Paige up the stairs.

££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££

" I know" Phoebe agreed excitedly " and you know what this means?"

"That the Elders have recycled Prue's soul somehow?"

"No!" Phoebe sighed "work with me here Piper, who out of the 3 of us is physically the most like Prue?"

"Paige" Piper replied slowly.

"so?"

"So?" _Christ her sister could be dense sometimes_. Phoebe continued " and who out of the 3 of us has a long lost 10 year old daughter?"

"Oh" The penny finally dropped for Piper. " You don't mean, .."

"yep"

"that she's…."

"Yep"

£££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££

Upstairs Paige guided Jo towards the spare bedroom, " You'll be here" she explained "and I'll be just next door" Paige pushed the door open to reveal a Chris shaped figure laying on the bed.

"whuh?" the young whitelighter woke from his doze. "sorry" he heard his aunt call as he struggled to open his eyes. He blinked as he noticed the small figure stood at her side. _Wait was that?..no it couldn't be her …_he thought…_I guess I'm still a bit woozy from that attack_…. "s'alright," he muttered as he rested his head back on the pillow, _perhaps this will make more sense after a nap._

"who is that?" Jo asked as Paige closed the door gently behind them.

_My 22 year old nephew from the future_. " a relation" Paige replied. " looks like you're rooming with me"

She placed Jo's bag down on the bed.

"I can't take your bed" Jo said aghast " I don't want to be a problem, I'll sleep on the sofa honestly I.."

"Nonsense" Paige interrupted. " It isn't a problem, look" Paige lent down, lifted the bedcovers and gave a tug to reveal a roll-a-way bed. "See, perfect for the overnight guest". She smiled, "why don't you unpack some of your clothes and I'll go get us a sandwich"

"Ok" Jo agreed as she began to unzip her bag.

£££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££

Back down in the kitchen Phoebe and Piper were engaged in whispered debate

" do you think she really is Paige's daughter"

"she _has_ to be" Phoebe replied. " look at her! I can't believe Paige hasn't said anything"

"Probably because she doesn't realise who she is" Piper reasoned.

"_hasn't realised_" Phoebe hissed. "a little girl turns up who _ is her carbon copy, which.._ "

"_Which_ to Paige is probably just a cruel irony" Piper finished.

"We've got to tell her" Phoebe insisted.

"whoa, wait now, do we have any actual evidence apart from their physical likeness that this is her daughter?"

"well, no, but "

"No, 'buts', we need proof before we breathe a word of this to her"

"But that's my point, we confront Paige and then we can get a DNA test and"

"_and_..thats one conversation I do not want to be having over the dinner table…hey Paige, you know your dead daughter, the one you grieved over, the one whose death you blame yourself for? Well guess what? she's not so dead, so you suffered all those years in vain. Isn't that great? So can you pass the salt?" Piper dead panned.

"ok, so we …."

"hey" Paige entered the kitchen to an awkward silence. "please, don't stop talking on my account"

Piper and Phoebe remained mute.

" a girl could get paranoid y'know" Paige joked as she started making two sandwiches" What were you talking about?"

"Chris" Piper said as Phoebe cried "Cole"

"what?"

"Chris and Cole," Phoebe corrected herself. "ugh, Chris said that he might have seen Cole in the underworld when he was last there"

"really?" Paige was busy placing food on the plates so fortunately didn't notice the look of relief that passed between the two elder siblings.

"So" Phoebe began in what she hoped was a neutral voice "that Jo seems nice"

"she is" Paige agreed "she's great"

"funny isn't it?" Phoebe continued.

"what?" Paige paused in her attempt to butter multiple slices of bread.

"How much Jo looks like you"

"Don't" Paige's voice was firm.

"what?" Phoebe feigned innocence.

"don't even go there" Paige repeated.

"I was just pointing out that .."

"I know what you were doing Phoebe, and don't you think I didn't notice it myself. Don't you think I didn't pause for the briefest of all seconds to wonder what if…? But I can't do that. I've seen my daughter's face in other peoples children millions of times over the years, and each time it reminds me of what I've lost. I refuse to do it anymore, to put myself through that pain each and every time I see a young girl with long dark hair and brown eyes. So whatever you were planning on saying save it, I don't want to know ok?".

Phoebe looked as if she wanted to reply but an angry glance from Piper silenced her. Paige finished making her snack. After what seemed an eternity she finally spoke again

"I'll take this up to Jo" she said simply as she walked out the door.

"Phew" Piper breathed when Paige had vanished upstairs. "that was close!"

"too close" Phoebe concurred.

"look perhaps we should just leave this daughter business, its like Chris said, they're destined to be together, lets just watch and wait, and we don't want to upset Paige again.

"No" said Phoebe stubbornly " I want some answers, and I'm going to make sure I get them"

TBC

Coming soon chapter 9: His Father's Son, Her Mother's Daughter


	9. His Father's Son, Her Mother's Daughter

A/N: Firstly many thanks to

midnite-magic,

bunn2007,

hopemaster,

drama angel,

nikki14u,

amysthstpony,

the halliwell's little angel,

teal-lover

and all the other people who have taken the time to review, its nice to know that some people are reading this!

Secondly, apologies I have mixed up the dates of when things happened in the TV series, so that it suits my story. Also I probably have the whole American school grade system completely wrong, but I was assuming 5th grade was like the English "year 6" (ie you're 10 at the beginning of the school year, 11 at the end).

Chapter 9: His Father's son, Her mother's daughter

Leo Wyatt always thought of himself as a family man. He prided himself on it in fact, it was obvious to all who knew him how much he cared for his wife and son, that he would do anything and everything to make sure that they were happy, healthy and most importantly, safe. Why, therefore, would such a devoted family man, flee the at a time when his wife needed him most? Why had this devoted father spent the best part of 3 weeks hiding up in the white clouds of the so-called 'Elderland'? The answer was simple, Leo Wyatt was ashamed. For the first time in his life, he had panicked. Not even in the field hospital during World War I had he run away from his responsibilities, nor during his early years as a white lighter, or during his and Pipers' clandestine romance. Yet now, thanks to a 22-year-old boy, Leo Wyatt had run away like a coward for the first time. Chris. You see Leo had known the boy was his son from the moment that the words had left Piper's lips, for although physically Chris was the image of his mother, such as Wyatt was the image of himself, he knew instantly that Chris' sense of family duty, the need to protect of his loved ones, and his down right stubbornness had been inherited from Leo himself.

The guilt Leo felt about his treatment of Chris, was unbearable. He literally couldn't sleep at night, and wasn't entirely sure if he could look his son in the face again. Hence his prolonged stay "up there", his self induced 'sending to Coventry' as it were. However, Leo found that the longer he left it, the worse he felt, as the guilt was increasing the more he stayed away, until now it was threatening to consume him entirely. Thus he knew there was only one possible solution…he had to talk to Chris.

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Back on planet Halliwell, Phoebe's plan to get "answers" was progressing at the pace of an arthritic snail. In the time that had elapsed since Jo had moved to the Halliwells, fate and the universe seemed to have intervened to make sure that the two of them were never in the same room for longer than 20 minutes. Jo attended the exclusive St Francis de Assisi Academy on the other side of the city which meant she had often left for school by the time that Phoebe came down to breakfast, and a combination of computer problems, printing issues, and emergency meetings meant that Jo was often in bed by the time Phoebe came home. The weekends had also been unproductive, as Paige had insisted on taking Jo out for the day to try and cheer her up. Consequently, now 10 days since Jo had arrived, Phoebe had the perfect occasion to have a "chat" her. A family dinner. Piper had insisted on it, as she too had been fed up that she had hardly seen anyone for the past week.

"just like normal families do" she said as she took the potatoes out of the oven.

" I couldn't agree with you more" Phoebe said a glint in her eye

"what are you planning? " Chris asked his aunt as he checked on the vegetables.

"what makes you think I'm planning anything?"

"Phoebe,come on, I grew up in the same house as you, you're a terrible liar"

"maybe so, but I'm not no lying"

"yes you are, you.."

"Hi, Hello, Hey " Piper interrupted "Can we cut the banter, this is supposed to be a nice family evening and.." her words were drowned out by the kitchen door slamming open "Paige" Piper yelled as she whipped round " how may times do I have to tell you…._leo?"_

Leo stood in the doorframe looking slightly embarrassed. "uh hello"

"What do you want?" Chris shot him a venomous look

Leo held his hands up in a mock peace sign "just to talk"

"well its too late for that" Chris spat. He turned toward his mother "don't wait up" he told her as he orbed out.

"great" Leo sighed.

"did you expect anything less?" Piper asked. " you've been gone _3 weeks_ leo"

"I know, and believe me, I couldn't be feeling any worse right now. I just wanted to talk to him that's all"

"Go after him then" Piper urged. "you're the one who bailed on us, you need to start rebuilding the _bridges_, if you see what I mean."

"oh" a look of realisation spread across his face.

"and I haven't finished with you yet, either, I just happen to think that ist more important that you speak to Chris right now, not me"

"right, yeah, I'll uh be back later" he orbed out to follow his son.

"okay" Piper handed Phoebe a serving dish. "I'll bitch at him later, for now lets eat….PAIGE, JO, its on the table"

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High atop the Golden Gate bridge Chris sat breathing in the cold evening air. His mind was racing, seeing his father again for the first time since his identity had been revealed, the news, had once again stirred up his deep seated anger. His reverie however was broken by the arrival of the man in question.

"Brilliant" Chris drawled.

"look Chris..I" Leo began.

"I came up here to get away from you" Chris interrupted.

"then why did you come to the first place that I would come looking for you.?"

"Reverse psychology" Chris explained. " I thought, that you would realise that this is too obvious a place, and given that I really don't want to see you right now, that I wouldn't come here, and you wouldn't even bother looking here. But the you never were the sharpest tool in the box were you?"

"Chris, I am still your father and"

"biologically speaking"

"whats that supposed to mean?"

"exactly what I said. That due to the laws of nature, you are genetically my father…in all other aspects….well you're pretty much a non entity"

"I know I reacted badly, but I was shocked, I"

"So was mum, so were the aunts, did they jump ship for 3 weeks? No"

"As I said, I'm not proud, I"

Chris wasn't listening " can't expect anything more from you though,"

"what?" Now, Leo was confused.

"you, heard, for a man who made disappearing into an art form, I can't expect anything more."

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The remaining Halliwells had been sat around the diner table for 15 minutes, exchanging pleasantries , before Phoebe had the opportunity to turn the conversation towards Jo

"So, Jo, how was school today?" Phoebe asked when Piper had finished her mini rant about Leo.

"good" she replied through a mouthful of mashed potato. "Paige took me for a milkshake when she picked me up."

"that's nice" Piper commented.

"yeah well I'm nice" Paige quipped.

"anyway" Phoebe continued "it must be hard having to travel over to the otherside of the city ever day"

"hmmmmm, its quite tiring I guess, but when I lived in San Diego I went to a school that was an hour away from my house"

"You haven't always lived in San Francisco?" This was not what Phoebe wanted to hear, this had to be Paige's daughter, she had to be.

"No, well, I was born here, but then we moved to San Diego when I was 3, we only moved back again about 18 months ago."

_Phew, still in with a chance_, _time to step it up a gear_. "cool, so Paige tells me you're in 6th grade, that makes you 10 right?"

"yeah, but i'll be 11 in March"

"March" Phoebe raised an eyebrow, sending Paige a pointed look. "would you look at that."

"Phoebe" Paige said a warning tone in her voice.

Phoebe chose to ignore this and turned back to Jo "when abouts in March?"

"I celebrate it on March 11th"

"Hey that's the same day as me! So..do you..?"

"Phoebe" Paige raised her voice.

"may I be excused a moment?" Jo asked Paige. " I need to get some tissue"

"Go ahead" Paige smiled. As soon as Jo had left the room she turned back to her sister, her smile froze and turned into a glare.

"Stop, this right now, I know what you're trying to do , and I've told you before..i'm not going there. For one thing, if we were to suspend reality for a second, Jo was born on March 11th, my daughter was born on March 9th, I should know, I was there, and for another….hey Jo you're back, are you ok?" Paige asked.

"yes" Jo sat back in her place. "I think I have a cold coming that's all"

"so March the 11th" Phoebe attempted to get the conversation back on track. "all the best people have their birthday on that day."

"I guess" Jo replied.

"you don't sound too sure" Phoebe probed.

"Well", Jo explained, "it's complicated, I was adopted, I was found on the steps of a church when I was a couple of days old. The Reverend and his wife took me to the hospital and the doctors estimated that I was about a week old, so like I said, I celebrate it on March 11th, but in reality it could be a few days either side."

"Really?" Phoebe practically bounced in her chair, whereas Paige looked as if she wanted to strangle her older sister.

"More drinks?" Piper said a little too forcedly determined to cut off the conversation, before Paige punched Phoebe. "Top up Jo" she asked brandishing a pitcher of water.

"Yes please" she looked at the array of tumblers in front of her, " I can't remember which is my glass though"

Almost instantaneously a pink tumbler shot forward, skidded across the table and stopped in front of the pitcher.

"Wow, someone _really_ _needs to close that window_, its awfully drafty in here" Piper said loudly, whilst Phoebes eyes bulged out of her head, and Paige looked as if she was going to explode. " Paige, Phoebe, could I talk to you in the kitchen a second please?"

Phoebe leaped from her chair and ran after her sister. Paige stood slowly, " we'll be back in a second ok" she reassured Jo.

Once in the confines of the kitchen Phoebe was beside herself. " did you see that?"

"It was the wind" said Paige firmly

"come on Paige, it's never the wind in this house" Phoebe cajoled.

"Piper" Paige turned to her oldest Sister

"I have to agree with Phoebe, that wasn't the wind, it was magic"

"No" Paige said stubbornly " For my sanity it _has _to have been the wind" tears began to well in her eyes, "it has to be" she repeated.

"Paige" Piper said softly

" Can I help?" Jo's voice came from the doorway. She looked at the puzzled faces in front of her. "with the washing up" she explained.

"No, no, we've got it under control" Paige wiped her eyes with her sleeve.

"Ok, I'll ACHEW" Jo closed her eyes, sneezed and orbed simultaneously. Fortunately she landed in the same spot, thus, unaware of what happened, she merely shook her head. "I guess I'll go to bed, I'm really tired" she wandered out of the room.

"Now that" said Phoebe, "was not the wind."

All eyes turned to Paige who looked as if she was going to be sick. " it can't be" were her last words before she fainted.

€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€

Atop the Golden gate bridge Leo couldn't quite believe what Chris was accusing him of.

"Made disappearing an art form? I left for 3 weeks, but technically you aren't even born yet, so surely we can put that behind us, start again?"

" You really don't get it do you?" Chris snarled. " This little 3 week stint, is nothing, in fact for you, it's a relatively short absence. I should be lucky"

"short? But I would never leave my family for so long?"

"oh yeah? What about the past 4 months?"

"well that was different, Piper asked me to leave, but voluntarily I wouldn't have gone"

"right, ok, tell me this then, where were you on my 5th birthday, where were you when I broke my arm, where were you when I took the lead in the school play? I could go on…."

"so, I hurt you, but that was future me, I don't know why I wasn't there, I even begin to imagine why"

"….where were you when I started school? When I got the chicken pox? When I made the football team? When…" Chris continued oblivious to his fathers pleas.

"I'm sorry, on behalf of my future self, I.."

"where were you…" Chris began to raise his voice to block out leo's voice, he stepped toward him, his heart began to beet quicker, anger and hate were cursing through his veins, his face was twisted in pain "WHERE WERE YOU WHEN MY LIFE FELL APART?"

TBC


	10. Nightmares

Chapter 10: Nightmares.

Paige sat on the sofa clutching at her mug of coffee as if her life depended upon it. She kept taking sips of the boiling liquid, the burning sensation that she felt as each drop touched her tongue served to remind her that she was in fact still awake and hadn't dreamt the events of the past hour. She had regained consciousness after her fainting fit to find herself on the sofa with Piper and Phoebe watching over her, looks of concern on their faces. Suddenly remembering the reason for her dizzy spell, Paige had bolted to the toilet and spent 5 minutes hugging the toilet bowl. On her return to the living room Piper propelled her toward the sofa, passed her a coffee, and without giving her the chance to speak, Phoebe had launched into the story of what had happened to Jo.

"…And so" Phoebe concluded 20 minutes later, "she's your daughter."

The older two siblings looked at the youngest, waiting for her response.

"I don't believe it…my baby's _alive_" was all that Paige could manage.

" I know sweetie, it's hard to take it all in, but you have a beautiful daughter out of all of this.." Piper began, only to be interrupted by Wyatt's cries. " Back in a tic"

"Where do the elders get off in doing something like this?" Paige asked, her voice wavering. "They made me think my own child was _dead"_ The end of her sentence was drowned out by a large sob and tears began to roll down her cheeks. " I thought she was _dead_"

Phoebe pulled her little sister into a bear hug, stroking her back softly as the sound of Paige's sobs echoed round the silent room. That's how Piper found them 10 minutes later when having finally calmed Wyatt down, she entered the living room.

The oldest charmed one sat gently on the sofa next to her younger sisters. " I checked on Jo" She said softly "she's sleeping"

Paige sat up slightly, catching her reflection in the mirror, her eyes were red raw and the skin on her face was blotchy from all the crying. "Perhaps the nightmares have finally stopped" She said, her voice still slightly shaky.

"Nightmares?" Phoebe asked.

Paige smiled, a little relieved of the opportunity to detour slightly and not to think directly about the enormity of what was happening. "When people suffer great loss, like Jo, or even me when my parents died, they often repress their feelings during the day. They try to block out all the pain by pushing it to the back of their minds. However, at night when they are asleep, their minds become free, they can't control their thoughts, so all those feelings come rushing to the forefront. This causes them to have nightmares where they relive the situation over and over. This past week for example Jo has been calling out for her father, her mother, her grandmother.."

"But I thought it was just her father who died in the crash?" Piper questioned.

"He did" Paige explained, "but one trauma can lead you to relive the deaths of other people that were close to you. For example when my parents died, it evoked memories of my grandparents deaths"

"Well what do you do to stop the nightmares?"

"The most important thing is that the person doesn't actually.."

Paige was interrupted by a scream from above. The 3 sisters leapt to their feet simultaneously and made for the stairs. "Looks like we spoke to soon" Piper said as they gained the second floor landing.

They came skidding to a halt in the doorway of Paige's room. Jo was sat upright, her eyes shut tight and her arms and legs thrashing wildly, " DADDY" she was screaming blindly, "MUMMY, MUMMY PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME MUMMY"

"Do something," Phoebe hissed at Paige who was frozen in the doorway.

" I I I can't" Paige stuttered.

"What were you saying downstairs…its important not to…?"

"Wake them" Paige whispered. "The key is not to wake them, because if you do, they will remember what they were dreaming about, its best just to reassure them, then, they subconsciously calm down and go back to sleep normally"

"So what are you waiting for?" Piper gave Paige a little push.

" I I I Can't" Paige repeated.

"Well, what have you done on previous nights?"

"I've just hugged her, pretended I was her dad or whoever, and then waited until she quietened down.."

"What's the problem now?"

"Are you two deaf? Did you not hear who she is calling for? Its different now, it's."

"It's a little girl who is having a nightmare" Phoebe cut in. " Forget about who Jo is for a second, forget about what has happened or what is going to happen….just go in there and do what your instincts tell you to do when you see an upset child"

Paige took a deep breath and walked slowly across the room, trembling with every step she took.

"MUMMY NOOOOOO" the child screamed.

After what felt like an eternity Paige reached the bed. She sank down beside Jo, and wrapped her arms around the shaking child "Its Ok Jo" She soothed. " Mummy's here, Mummy's here"

"WHERE WERE YOU WHEN MY LIFE FELL APART?" Chris was looking at him with such hatred that for a split second Leo thought that he was going to punch him. He closed his eyes and waited for the blow to arrive, when it didn't Leo looked up to see that Chris had moved away from him and was standing on the other side of the bridge. Gingerly Leo took a step forward.

"When your life fell apart?" Leo questioned. The raw emotion that had been visible in Chris' face a minute earlier disappeared, and was now replaced by his habitual hooded look, silence prevailed.

The two stood a while, gazing outward across the bay, watching as the fog moved in across the city.

"Chris" Leo repeated. "what did you mean by that?"

"Nothing" he replied, his voice taught and emotionless. " Forget it. I didn't mean anything"

"No" Leo persisted, edging further toward him. "Whatever happened effected you deeply, and as your father I want to know"

"Well that's funny 'cos it sure seemed like you didn't want to know at the time"

" In case you've forgotten it has yet to happen, and I want to know, perhaps I can help you,….. "

"Oh yes, Super Dad to the rescue, Leo Wyatt saves the day….except you didn't_, you_ screwed up big time"

"Chris, this is stupid we're getting nowhere, _please_ tell me, what happened"

There was a pause. Chris seemed to be contemplating whether to continue with this endless game of cat and mouse, or instead have the truth come out and show Leo how badly his futureself had let his family down, something which would kill present Leo if he were to find out. Finally reaching a decsison he turned round to face his father.

"Do you really want to know?" he said slowly

"Yes, I really want to know, I wouldn't have said so otherwise…."

"Mum died" Leo was cut off as the words came rushing out of Chris' mouth. He always said it quickly, so that he wouldn't have to hear the words, and be reminded that this wasn't one of the millions of lies that he had fabricated, but the stone cold truth.

_Mum died_. _Mum as in Piper. Piper died_. Those two little words pierced Leos heart like a bullet from a gun. He grabbed out behind him for something to hang onto as his legs gave way beneath him and he crumpled to a heap on the floor. Chris stood there watching him, his face blank, not displaying the perverse happiness he felt at seeing his father take the news of his wife's death, seeing him suffer, like Chris himself had all those years ago.

"She….how…why…what…?" Leo babbled, searching Chris'face for some answers.

"It doesn't matter how, or when or even why" Chris spat, preparing himself to deliver the final blow. "What matters is that when she died, the very time that Wy and I needed you the most, you left us."

"I L..I Left you?" Leo stuttered.

"I need to get away for a bit boys, I can't cope you see boys, I'll be back real soon boys" Chris mimicked his fathers voice. "Do you know how long you were gone for?"

"How long?" Leo croaked, not wanting to hear the answer.

"2 years…_dad" _Chris watched as his father took on board the information. He saw the Elder's face become contorted as he was over come with feelings of guilt for a crime that he was yet to commit . " You left me at my darkest hour" Chris continued. "Now I'm leaving you at yours" . Without a backwards glance, Chris orbed out into the night, leaving Leo alone to be tormented by his thoughts.

Coming soon Chapter 11: Dealing with it.

Jo and Chris talk, Paige seeks advice from an unlikely source and Leo..you'll just have to wait and see….


	11. Dealing with it Part I

Chapter 11:Dealing with it.

It was the sunlight streaming through the curtains and settling on her face the following morning, that woke Jo from her deep sleep. She lay there a moment, savouring the last few moments of peace and quiet before the dreaded alarm went off. The faint sound of crockery being moved about could be heard coming from the kitchen. It must be Piper cooking breakfast she thought, smiling to herself. There was something about this house and the people in it that Jo loved. She felt strangely at home here, she didn't know why, as if she had been here for months even though in reality it had only been 10 days. Still, it saddened her to think that this was only temporary, and that soon she would have to move on to a new foster home. Keeping her eyes shut, Jo reached out blindly for her alarm clock, to turn it off before it rang and save herself from hearing the horrible noise it made. After 2 minutes of waving her arms in the general direction of her bedside table with no success, she opened one eye. It was then she realised that she was not in her own bed. Panicking slightly she opened both eyes and frantically scanned her surroundings. Its Ok she reassured herself as she took in the familiar drapes and bedroom furniture, you're in Paige's bed that's all. Paige's bed? Why was she there? A vague memory of a bad dream floated to the front of her mind. She remembered feeling scared and calling out something, but it was all a bit hazy. Perhaps some breakfast will help me focus. Attempting to move slightly, Jo found she was pinned down. She moved her head slightly to find Paige in bed next to her, spooned into Jo's back, one arm draped protectively across Jo's waist. Not wanting to wake her, Jo lifted her arm gently, slipped out of the bed and crept into the hallway.

It was in fact Chris who was banging around in the kitchen not Piper. After leaving his father to battle with his guilty conscience Chris had orbed straight back to his room in the mannor. He felt slightly guilty about avoiding his mother, who despite his instructions had waited up for him anyway, but he hadn't really wanted to talk to anyone. He'd not slept well, and had eventually decided to get up early and do some demon hunting as opposed to laying in bed awake counting the ceiling tiles. The sounds of foot steps in the hall alerted him to the fact that he was no longer the only person up, and a few seconds later Jo, appeared, standing shyly in the doorway.

"Pancakes?" he asked, brandishing the pan.

"yes please" came the reply "chocolate chip an.."

"and cinnamon, coming right up"

"How did you know that?" Jo asked.

"I know everything" Chris answered, stifling a laugh.

If it was bizarre for him to see the self confessed overlord of evil, Wyatt Halliwell as a dribbling 2-year old in this timeline, it was downright amusing to see his cousin as a pre-teen. Poppy-Jo, as she was known in his timeline had always been his favourite cousin, often called in to baby sit him and Wyatt, Poppy was Chris' confidante, listening to all his worries, reassuring him, giving him advice, and for that he missed her the most. With 11 years difference between them, she had always seemed so grown up, and sophisticated, so seeing her now with braces on her teeth, skinny legs and stubby nails was quite a revelation.

"Is Paige still asleep" he asked.

"Yep, ..i woke up in her bed though.. I think I must have had a bad dream or something..do you know if I was shouting at all last night?"

"No idea, I didn't get back til real late"

"Did you and Leo have a nice time last night?" she questioned

"ugh…don't ask"

"Why not?"

"It doesn't matter, lets just say dad and I had some issues to work through"

" Dad?..wait a sec..Leo's your dad?"

"Yes" Chris said casually as he passed her a plate.

"So that makes Piper your mum?"

"You catch on quick" he quipped, before realising his mistake. In this timeline Jo was still unaware about magic, time travel and everything else related to the magical universe, and thus far they had managed to avoid addressing the issue of exactly how Chris was related to them, until now that is. He glanced over at Jo who seemed to be doing some mental calculations.

"But Pipers.." she started

"..was really young, when she had me, yep really young…"

"but you're like twenty.."

"sixteen, I'm err sixteen, I just like to make out I'm older"

"Ok" Jo eyed him up and down, not quite believing it, but deciding not to question it, either.

Upstairs Paige was laying in bed lost in her own thoughts. She'd been woken when Jo had gotten out of bed, and had been trying to order her thoughts ever since. She'd had a fitful nights sleep in between bouts of worrying that Jo was ok, and playing out the different scenarios in how she might break the news to the girl, that she was in fact her long lost mother. Indeed the more Paige thought about it, the more confused she became, and the less sure that telling Jo would be a good idea. She desperately needed a second opinion on the subject, however for once her sisters were no good. Phoebe had been insistent on an Oprah style reunion from the get go, complete with Paige clutching a hanky whilst a violin overture played in the background, and lots of crying and "I Love yous," hence she would not be receptive to the merest hint that Paige might not want to tell Jo the truth the second she laid eyes on her. As for Piper, she had her own problems to deal with, what with everything that was going on between Leo and Chris. There was only one person who could possibly hope to understand what Paige was going through right now, and Paige knew exactly where to find them.

Jo and Chris ate in silence for 5 minutes before Jo plucked up the courage to speak to him again.

"So what happened between you and Leo?"

There was something in her eyes, a gentleness, a patient understanding, that even as a kid, Chris wanted to open up to his cousin.

"He's pretty much a non-person in my life right now"

"How so?"

"He wasn't around much, if at all when I was growing up"

"Well my dad had to work away from home a lot too but.."

"Its not like that,…its not just that his work that kept him away…when we really needed him he was never there…"

"Is that what you were talking about last night?"

"I think that arguing would be a more accurate word, but yeah"

"And it really bothers you doesn't it"

"No! I don't care what he thinks, or done, he means nothing to me anymore"

"You can't mean that, he's your father"

"Yes, I do, I hate him for what he did to us, I don't care if I ever see him again"

Jo looked at him, a wisdom beyond her years radiating from her brown eyes.

"Hate is a strong word, Chris" she said calmly, making Chris feel as if they had changed roles for a minute and he was the child and she the adult. He was about to protest when she started speaking to him again, in her quiet calm way.

"Most people only get one set of Parents in this life Chris, only the very lucky get more. That's why we need to show them that we love them while we can, because once they're gone its too late. My mum died when I was really young, I remember being sad, but then thinking that it was Ok because I still had my dad and he loved me. We were close, but that's not to say we didn't argue, he wasn't perfect and neither am I, but I loved him more than anything,… then suddenly he was gone. My whole life, completely turned upside down in 10 seconds flat. I would give anything just to be able to see him again, speak to him, hold his hand, even if it was just for 5 minutes. You're so fortunate Chris, and you don't see it. You have a Dad who is still here, after all the mistakes he may have made, you still have time to repair all that, he's obviously willing to try, else he wouldn't have come here…you never know what is going to happen…one day you might need him and it will be too late."

Chris sat in silence a while contemplating all that Jo had said. She was right about one thing, that deep down he truly didn't hate Leo, it was anger more than anything.

Jo finished her pancake, rinsed the dish and turned to face Chris.

"Well?" It was a question not a statement.

"Well…I guess we have some talking to do" Chris admitted.

"Good" Jo replied, " I'll see you later"

"Sure will" Chris called "oh and Jo?"

"yes" she paused,

"you might be one of the lucky ones too you know"

She smiled, not quite understanding what he was talking about and headed up the stairs. Chris waited until she had safely rounded the corner before orbing out.

He materialized atop the Golden Gate Bridge, landing in the same spot from which he orbed out the night before. He spotted his father, hair unkempt, clothes creased, with red eyes and a six o'clock shadow, huddled in one corner.

Chris approached him gently. "Dad" he called his voice neutral. Leo twisted his head toward him, a pleading look in his eyes.

"Chris?"

"I think its time we set a few things straight"

Paige pulled her dressing gown further round her before she knelt down on the floor. _It sure is chilly up here in the morning _she thought.

The candles had been lit, the book of shadows was open at the required page. She took a deep breath.

"Spirit from the other side, cross now the great divide"

The flames blew out, and an orb cloud appeared in the centre of the room.

"Paige?" the voice called.

"Hi" she replied shyly as Patty Halliwell materialised in the circle.

TBC Dealing with it Part II


	12. Dealing with it Part 2

a/n: sorry its so short, longer update next time!

Chapter 12:Dealing With It Part II

Paige looked at the corporeal form of her dead-but-not really-dead mother and immediately regretted summoning her. She always felt awkward around Patty, nervous almost, but on the handful of occasions that she had actually met her mother in the past, her sense of insecurity had always been hidden by her sisters' vocal enthusiasm at seeing their dead parent. So here they were, now face to face and alone for the first time since August 1977. It wasn't that Paige didn't want to confide in Patty, it was that she didn't know _how , _as despite their biological connection, they were in fact practically strangers, whereas Grams regularly put in an appearance, invited or not, Patty was around less often.

"What's the matter sweetie?" Patty asked, her eyes filled with concern for her youngest daughter. "Are your sisters in trouble ? Is that why you called me?"

"No" Paige mumbled, her throat suddenly becoming dry. " I just…"

"What?" Patty touched Paige's trembling arm.

"I just wanted to talk" Paige repeated her voice barely above whisper. The next thing she knew, hot salty tears had begun to run down her cheeks, " and I didn't know who else to call, sorry" she explained, whilst internally she admonished herself for being so weak as to start crying the instant her mother turned up.

"it's ok sweetie, don't apologise" Patty soothed, wrapping her arms around her. "that's what mothers are for, well not that I have been any kind of a mother to you, we're practically strangers you and I, in fact I would blame you if you had never really wanted to see me..I "

" I don't blame you" Paige said in a small voice " Not anymore, not with everything that has happened lately, in fact for the first time in my life I can honestly say that I completely understand why you did what you did."

"I don't understand" Patty exclaimed "has this got something to do with what you wanted to talk about?"

"Yes" Paige sniffed. " I realise now why you and Sam felt that you needed to give me away, why the threat of what the elders would do scared you so much. Because at least by giving me up, you could go on with your life knowing that somewhere I was alive and happy, and that the elders couldn't hurt you or me…"

"I thought Sam explained all this to you years ago" Patty puzzled.

" He did, and half of me accepted it, but deep down I always believed that perhaps you could have done something, that is until recently"

"Paige what is it? You're begging to scare me now."

" I had a baby when I was sixteen" Paige said simply

If Patty was stunned by the information, she didn't show it, although it did take her a while longer than usual to find her voice. "you had a baby at 16?"

"yes, I fell into the wrong crowd, went a bit crazy got a bit careless.."

"but I thought we gave you a good home"

"you, did" Paige reassured " it was me, I was the one who rebelled against my nice cosy upbringing, mum and dad couldn't stop me and god love them they tried"

"Ok" Patty seemed slightly calmer.

"so I had a baby" Paige repeated. " I didn't know it, but her father was also a witch whit lighter, from quite a powerful family it seems. Anyway let's just say I was at the receiving end of the elder's wrath"

"what did they do?" Patty questioned, not sure that she wanted to know.

"they told me my baby had died" Paige replied, the haunted look on her face "they told me that she had died, when reality they had taken her away from me"

Patty was rendered speechless. Her guilt at giving up her younger daughter had never left her, although it had been assuaged slightly by Sister Agnes' promise that they would find her a good home. When she had learned of the death of Paige's adopted parents, the guilt had later resurfaced, only again to die slightly when Paige found her sisters. Now however, Patty's heart was breaking at the thought of her youngest child having to grieve for both her parents and her child whilst barely a child herself.

"my poor little girl" she cried. " How on earth did you cope?"

" I didn't" Paige replied " but the hows and whys, don't matter for the moment. The issue at stake is that I have found her, by some cruel twist of fate , for her at least, she has come back into my life, she's down stairs as we speak."

"Well that's great news" Patty exclaimed " or isn't it?" she asked, catching the look in Paige's eyes. "Is this what you wanted to talk to me about?"

"yes, I can't talk to Phoebe or Piper about it"

" your sisters? Why not?"

"because they think I should tell Jo about me, who she is etc and then we can all live here as one big happy family, and I .."

" don't think you should" Patty finished her daughters sentence.

"No" Paige agreed. " I don't think I should"

TBC


	13. Chris' Story

Chapter 13: Chris' Story

"I need to explain a few things" Chris continued, unable to meet his father's gaze, immediately feeling guilty about his treatment of this timelines Leo who was in fact still innocent of the cruel treatment metted out by his future counterpart.

"The day mom died, it began just like anyother, there was no sign, no whisper, no hint, that this would be the day that shaped us all, the day that defined what Wyatt and I would ultimately become...we had breakfast, mom wanted to talk to you about my report card, but you were too busy, you had a breakfast meeting with the elders that you couldn't possibly miss, you exchanged a few words and then orbed out. Your last words to her in fact were 'Not now, Piper I'm too busy'" Chirs paused in his monologue to glance at his father, Leo's face was blank, his mind struggling to keep up with all the information.

"The demon attacked just as Wy and I were about to leave for magic school...it all happened too quickly..we couldn't do anything...afterwards, when you finally came, you didn't even try to heal her, you just looked at her laying there, ' i can't heal the dead Chris' is all you said. I so badly wanted you to tell me that it would be ok and that you could fix it, but you didn't. All Wyatt and I wanted was for you to give us a hug, but you couldn't even manage that, you just left to go and get Grandpa. Wyatt was on his knees in a pool of our mother's blood trying to scrub the floor clean, as if in some way that would bring her back, like the harder he scrubbed he might some how inject some life force back into her, and you couldn't even wait 5 minutes to comfort us..."

A sob broke the still night air. Leo, tears running down his face, couldn't even begin to imagine how he had evolved to become such an apparently heartless creature.

"Grandpa arrived" Chris continued " you orbed him to the mannor, but you didn't return yourself, Grandpa said that you had gone to see the elders and that you would be back as soon as you could. I stood in the window all night watching for you, waiting for you to return. Grandpa kept begging me to get some sleep, but i refused, i didn't want to miss when you came back, thats when my insomnia started...i waited, we waited, i don't know how long, two days, two months, it could of been two years for all i know, it felt like an eternity. Grandpa said you were gone a week, you came back the morning of her funeral. We had the service and the wake, we didn't really get to speak to you because you were busy with the guests. After they all left, Wy and I were glad because it meant that now we got you all to ourselves. We sat in the living room, when you finally came in, it was to tell us that you were leaving" Chris' voice began to tremble.

"'I need time boys' Chris spat, recalling his fathers words "' I need to think, to clear my head'...what about us, we need you! Wyatt and i pleaded,pleaded with our own father to stay with us, to give us a little bit of his attention...'I'm sorry boys' was what you said, you hugged us, and then just left. We didn't see you for 6 months...even after your return you were barely around, always finding some sort of crusade to occupy your time so that you didn't have to be at the mannor. I over heard you telling Grandpa that everytime you saw my face i reminded you of mom, and you couldn't deal with it...so you want to know why i hated you so much? well now, you know" The last ounce of Chris' composure left him, and he broke down in tears.

"I.." Leo's voice was barely a whisper "I'..I 'm so sorry" He dragged himself to his feet, hot salty tears blurred his vision as he made his way along the bridge toward his son. He crouched down to face chris who had curled up into a ball and was rocking himself back and forth, as if trying to rid himself of the memories of the past. Leo touched Chris' shoulder, he flinched and tried to shake him off, but Leo persisted. He wrapped his arms round his son, locking him into a fierce hug, "I know that sorry doesn't even begin to cover it, but please chris, i promise i am here for you now, i will always be there for you, the mistakes my futureself made, i will fight may damm hardest to make sure that i don't make them" Chris continued to resist, but it became increasingly more difficult with each word his father said, he could feel his warmth of his father, he relaxed and hugged him back ..."Thank you Daddy" he said in a small voice.


	14. Another Bump in the Road

Chapter:14:Transitions

"so you don't think you should tell Jo she's your daughter" Patty repeated.

" No, yes..i, mean. No i don't know" replied Paige a little flustered. " It's not that i don't love her, i love her more than i ever thought it possible to love another human being..it's just..."

"what sweetie?.."

"i don't think she can handle this sort of revelation just now, she's still mourning for her father, and..to be honest..i think she deserves more than me..she deserves a mother _and_ a father"

"i see" Patty said, slowly trying to follow Paige's chain of thoughts.

"What would _you_ have done?" Paige looked at her mother, a look of near desperation in her eyes. " what would you have done if you had been alive when my parents died? would you have sought me out? told me who i was?"

"It was different with you" Patty began, choosing her words carefully, aware that the slightest slip up could fracture the already fragile relationship with her youngest child. " you were older..of course 17 is still terribly young to lose one's parents, ...that said, i really honestly don't know...all i do know is that it felt like a part of me died inside the day I gave you away and i never got it back...not until i found you again, by which time it was too late , i was already dead" Patty gave a hollow laugh. "i don't want you to have to go through that too...you were fortunate, you had a mother and a father and a 'secure' up bringing, but your sisters only had Grams, and they didn't turn out too badly did they?"

"No.." Paige admitted. " Its just all soo confusing, and happening so quickly.."

"I know" Patty moved closer and pulled Paige in a hug. Paige nestled her head on her mothers shoulder, wishing that she was 7 years old again and that 'mommy' could make all the bad things go away. They sat in silence a while, each contemplating the situation at hand. Paige was the first to speak " So you think i should tell her?"

"for what it's worth..yes"

"So, i think i shouldn't, you think i should..we need a third person to break the tie" Paige attempted a joke.

"Perhaps we should" Patty agreed, casting her eyes heavenward.

"Come on!" Paige sat up. " Grams? because it's not like she would be biased at all! We all know what she would say..'of course this child must be told about her magical destiny blah blah yaddah yaddah'"

"Actually I wasn't thinking about Grams" Patty admitted.

"Then who?"

"Your father"

"you mean 'your father' as in Sam?" Paige asked, finding her voice again after a good thirty seconds of stunned silence.

"yes" Patty replied "why do you sound so shocked?"

"ummm maybe because i haven't seen him in 3 years..that he has played no part in my life to date whatsoever,which.."

"..which makes his pont of view, nothing if not subjective.."

"i guess" as, unsure and as hesitant as she was tomeet him againPaige did have to agree, that Sam of all people _did _have an informed opinion on the sjubject.

"That's settled.. SAM" Patty shouted.

Paige felt her heart rate increase slightly, and her palms began to sweat as the whitelightery jingle sounded and Sam Wilder appeared in the circle

£££££££££££££££££

Chris orbed into the kitchen trying to be as quiet as he could. He felt calmer now,more settled after his talk with Leo, ready to give their relationship a chance and work on their issues, rather than dissmiss itenitrely.He scanned the room, finding it apparently empty, he removed his shoes and tip toed accross the floor,

"WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?" Piper came flying out of the breakfast nook, one hand on her hip, an enraged expression on her face. " YOU ORB OUT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT, WITHOUT A COAT I MIGHT ADD, TO WHO KNOWS WHERE, ON AN EMPTY STOMOUCH, AND THEN TRY TO SNEAK BACK IN HERE ATWHO KNOWS WHAT TIME ONLY TO DISAPPEAR AGAIN,AND"

"MOM" Chris cut her off mid rant. " It's ok, I'm fine. I told you not to wait up.."

"I'm your mother, of course i'm going to ignore you and wait up anyway, thats what we do"

Chris felt a sudden wave of sadness wash over him,as he was reminded once again that his mother had died before he was old enough to have a social life, on the occasions when he had gone out clubbing before joining the resistence, he had always come home to a cold, dark, empty house.

Fortunately Piper was too busy fussing to notice the expression on her younger sons face. "..and your brother's got the sniffles, i don't want you coming down with a cold too, and all that stress, and what about your father? where is he? did you fight? you did didn't you..i knew it!..has he gone off again?"

"Mom!" Chris interupted again, " If you would just stop for 2 minutes i'd tell you!...Dad and I sorted a few things out, he's just popped up to elder-land to ask them a favour"

As if on cue bright orb lights filled the room, and Leo appeared in the kitchen " AND YOU.."Piper turned to face her ex-husband " LOOK AT THAT JACKET! aLL THOSE STAINS DOWN THE FRONT! ITS GOING TO TAKE ME AGES TO GET THAT SLEEVE CLEAN" She advanced toward the pair of them, her eyes blazing, reminding Leo of a younger Penny Halliwell. She stood between the two of them, her hands clenched into fists, red streaks colouring her cheeks, Chris almost had the urge to take a step backwards, before he could, he felt an arm being flung around his neck as Piper pulled them into a 3-way hug.

"I was so worried" She sobbed into Chris's shoulder. Loosening her grip she stood back to face the two of them. " don't ever do that to me again ok? either of you"

" No" Leo and Chris chorused.

"Good, now" Piper wiped her eyes on the edge of her sleeve "what were you asking the elders for?"

"Well.."_if you had let me get a word in edgeways i might have told you_, Leo was tempted to say, but catching the look on Pipers face, thought the better of it. " I was asking them if i could have some kind of paternity leave, to spend more time with you and the boys when baby chris is born"

"oh" Piper stutted, the wind completely taken out of her sails. " good, i mean its about time they realised that you have otherresponsibilititesbesides them." Inwardly she was rejoycing that leo would be able to spend more time with them, but outwardly she wasn't quite ready to show him this yet, not after how he reacted when she had first told him about Chris.

"right" She continued, "I think _you"_ she pointed at Chris " Should go and jump in a hot bath you're looking a bit peeky"

"Mom, i had a shower this morning! i am ok!"

"humpf" came the reply " Well at least have a hot drink? please? just to humour me"

"Son, one thing you should have learnt by now, its best just to agree with your mother" Leo hissed.

"Ok, Ok " Chris held his hands up in a mock peace sign " What do you have in mind?"

"Hot Chocolate" Piper smiled, reaching for the mugs. "Go, ask Jo if she wants one"

Chris strolled into the sunroom where his cousin was watching television, absent mindedly bouncing Wyatt on her lap.

"Look's like you've made a friend" he remarked.

"he's so sweet" she cooed, " like a little angel"

"appearences can be deceiving" Chris muttered.

"what?"

"Nothing!..so, do you want a hot chocolate..?"

"So.." Piper asked her ex-husband the second that Chris left the room. "Did you find out why he hates you?"

"sort of," Leo hedged " apparently future me wasn't around too often"

"is that all?..i got the impression that it was worse than that"

"Yes, and No, its complicated, difficult circumstances.."

"Like?"

"Like, "

"She'll have a mug!" Chris bounded through the door, cutting off his parents converstation.

"Good" Piper shoved two mugs into his hands, "there you go!"

She handed the remainder to Leo "this conversation isn't over" she whispered, as they followed Chris back into the sunroom

"Hey" Jo greated them "Wyatt said a new word, just now"

"did he?" Piper felt a rush of pride

"Come, on Wyatt, say it again" Jo coaxed

"Kiss" the baby repeated pointing at his brother, and then clapping his hands, obviously pleased with himself.

Chris felt himself blush slightly, touched at his brother's efforts.

"yay little man" Piper picked him up.

Thus, it was while all eyes were fixed on the twice blessed one, that the Dark Lighter managed to enter the room unoticed

TBC


	15. The Aftermath

Sam had just dusted himself down and had yet to even stutter a confused 'hello' when they were interupted. Piper's scream vibrated off the walls and filled every room in the house. It wasn't the girly cry of a heroine in a b-rate horror flim, rather a blood curdling, bone chilling sound of complete and utter anguish, a sound that made the hairs on one's arm stand on end, a sound that caused the inhabitants of the attic to freeze in their actions.

Paige bolted for the attic door without giving her parents a backwards glance. she flew down the stairs, accross the hall, skidding to a holt in the door of the sunroom, bile raising up in her throat as she took in the scene before her, a scene that would be replayed over and over again in her nightmares in the weeks and months ahead.

Chris and Leo lay face down on the flagstone floor, a crimson pool slowly forming around them, blood gushing from their gapeing wounds inflicted by the dark lighters arrows, Chris's on his left shoulder, Leo's on his right. A slow rasping sound indicated that one of them, Paige couldn't detect who, was still conscious, though not for long. Her eyes travelled accross the floor, passed Wyatt who was apparently unharmed inside his blue bubble, and was now screaming at the top of his lungs, on to Piper who was knealing on the floor, clutching her stomuch, unable to stand due to the pain that was cursing through her body, silent tears were pouring down her cheeks, her mouth agape, yet no sound came out, the torment so intense that speech was no longer possible. Finally she settled on Jo, eyes wide open with fear who was sat in the arm chair. She was conscious, though desperately pale, and for the briefest of seconds Paige hoped beyond all hope that Jo had escaped unscathed, as she neared she noticed the layer of sweat on Jo's forehead, the shallow breathing, hope was finally dashed the instant the cushion which Jo had been holding against her fell to the floor to reveal where an arrow had pierced her stomuch, her once powder blue top now dyed the darkest red.

"SAM, MOM" The words had barely left Paige's mouth before the swirling lights deposited her parents in the room. "HEAL.NOW" Paige, rendered near speechless by the scene before her, found it easier to communicate using the bare minimum of words.

Sam and Patty quickly took in the grotesque tableau before springing into action. As the only one without white lighter blood, Patty gathered her strength and walked purposely over toward where Leo and Chris lay. Taking a deep breath she clapsed the arrow embedded in Leo's shoulder with both hands and gave it a sharp tug. The amount of blood pouring from the wound meant that the arrow slid out quite quickly. Sam moved over and instantly began to heal Leo, as Patty repeated the same process on Chris, who made no sound whatsoever when the arrow was removed. As Sam finished up Leo, Patty crossed the room, to where Paige sat stroking her her daughters hair. "It's OK Sweetie, everything will be ok" Patty soothed as she approached. "This will just hurt a little" Patty reassured her as she readied herself to remove the final arrow. Jo, in too much pain to question the sudden appearence of this strange woman merely nodded feverishly, flinching as the arrow was pulled free. Sam, having healed Leo, who in turn was now attempting to heal Chris, was at Jo's side in seconds

. "I can't loose her again, i can't!" Paige babbled as Sam leant over and began applying his healing touch, and Jo closed her eyes trying to let the pain wash over her.

On the otherside of the room Leo knealt at Chris' side, his hand hovering over the gash on his shoulder which was taking longer to heal than anticipated. "Chris" leo whispered "come on chris, i need you to be strong, we need you to be strong.." a slight groan escaped the young witch-lighters lips, a sign that at least he appeared to be slowly regaining consciousness. "Chris, ..Wyatt, needs you, mommy needs you, ..._I, _need you...wake up buddy please!"

"wuh?"Chris' eyes fluttered open. "what happened...? the darklighter..! i didn't see it, I.." he said groggily, attemtping to sit up. "woah, calm down" Leo replied pushing him back down.

"mom..where's mom?" Chris turned his head toward where Piper had been standing "Dad! he cried, what happened to mom," he pointed to Piper who was now spread eagled on the floor.

Leo jumped up, he was at his wife's side instantainously. " It's ok" he called "She's just fainted."

"I don't need to sleep, mom, i feel fine now" Chris protested 45 minutes later. His plee however fell on deaf ears as Piper tucked the bedsheets around him.

"I never said you had to sleep Christopher, i said that you need to get some _rest" S_he continued, fluffing the pillows as she spoke.

Chris sighed, looking to his father for some help, only to find that Leo himself had drifted off to sleep in the rocking chair. "Honestly..I.." he raised himself up slightly

"Nuh uh" Piper pushed him back down. "You" she began speaking slowly and clearly as if conversing with an idiot " are going to stay here for at least 30 minutes...whether you sleep, meditate, contemplate life and the universe or just plain sulk, you are _not_ and i repeat not, going to step foot out of this bed..okay?"

"but.."

"I said OKay, Christopher, don't make me put you in a crystal cage mister!"

"alright" Chris sulked.

"Good..ouch, you kicked me!"

"mom these sheets are so god dam tight that i can barely breathe let alone move my legs"

"Not you, mini you, he just kicked me!"

"way to go, mini me, he's just looking out for me"

"_I _am just looking out for you..now get some rest!" she repeated, closing the door softly.

"I think someone needs to take thier own advice" a voice came from behind.

"mom i'm fine, i didn't even get hurt, well, only indirectly.." It was Piper's turn to protest.

"maybe so, but as you seem to have learnt mothers have the perogative to boss their children around, so come on, off to bed with you too" Patty wrapped her arm round her older daughter, and guided her toward Phoebe's room. "besides you can tell me all about my new grandson..."

Down in the kitchen Sam and Paige sat on opposing stools each clutching at a mug of camomile tea. They had enquired after each other's health, drank 3 mugs of tea and exhausted the more trivial topics of conversation such as the weather, the price of eggs, whether London really should have won the olympic bid, the pros and cons of signing the kyoto agreement, and had since fallen into silence.

"So" Sam took a break from examining the bottom of his mug to ask a question "you never did tell me why you called me"

"right...that"

" i figuered it must have been something important for you to have called me..it's not as if we're in regular contact"

"and who's fault is that?" Paige snapped setting her mug down "Its not as if you don't know where i am now is it?"

"i know..i .."

"i mean forgive me for thinking that when you floated your sorry ass in here, when was it now, _two years ago, _it could have been the start of us getting to know each other properly, but no, you float on out never to be seen again, so let me ask you, where the hell have you been these past couple of years..why did you bail on me again? was once not enough?"

"you have every right to be angry at me Paige you really do, and trust me i have an explanantion, but in fairness i asked my question first, now why did you call me down here?"

"I, well, we, infact, mom, called you down here because of Jo..."

"Jo? "

"Jo, the little girl you just healed, dark hair, pale skin, looks a lot like "

"..you. She's your daughter?"

"yes"

"I'm a grandfather?"

"Technically ...yes"

"and you called me down here beacuse of her?"

"yes..we kind of needed your opinion on something, its a bit of a long story..."

"well carry on, because i'm listening"

"...and so Big Chris is actually baby Chris from the future?"Patty repeated, after listening to Piper's explanation.

"yes..its all a bit confusing but, yes i am the mother of a 22-year old!"

"Well, for a moment there i did begin to wonder if there was another secret teenage pregnancy that i should have known about.."

"hardly! you didn't see me in high school did you!"

Pattys face fell slightly "No i didn't" she said softly

"Mom! i'm sorry i didn't mean it..."

"I know you didn't, and it's true, i wasn't there..but anyway, how are things going between you and Leo and 'the boys'?"

"well considering Wyatt is on the brink of turning evil and my youngest son is only 9 years younger than me, fairly well, except.."

"except?"

"except i think Chris, is hiding something from me..i'm not sure what exactly, whatever it is it caused some huge tension between him and Leo"

"how so?"

"i don't know, they had an argument and i think it all came out, so now Leo knows too, and both of them are remaining tight lipped"

"I wouldn't worry sweetie, i am sure that if it was important they would have told you"

" I guess"

"I'm sure" Patty planted a kiss on her daughters forehead

" i miss you so much mom, iw ish you could come down more often"

"so do I, but i also think its a testament to how strong and able you girls are that you don't need to summon me that often"

"i don't feel that strong"

"you are my dear, you are the backbone of this family, you have the greatest inner strength of anyone i know"

Before Piper could continue the swirl of orb lights appeared, depositing Chris and Wyatt in the room.

"what did i just tell you about getting out of bed?"

"Mom..it was Wyatt!"

"Wyatt?" Patty asked.

"Grandma! " Chris exclaimed spying Patty "hey..how are you?"

"Christopher i am waiting.."

"Ok, after you left Wyatt orbed into my room, i guess he wanted to play, and then he just touched my arm and orbed the pair of us here"

"Kids" Patty shook her head " never a dull moment..but hats off to Wyatt, i was just thinking that i would like to meet you two properly"

"see!" Chris said

"yes, well.." Piper began

"nevermind her" Patty interupted, "come here and give your grandma a hug!"

Jo awoke to find herself lying under a duvet on the living room sofa. Her memories of the previous hour were a little blurry, she remembered a man dressed in black carrying what appeared to be a bow and arrow and then the next thing she knew she was bleeding and feeling so much pain that she thought she was going to be sick. Paige had been there, crying hysterically, and a strange man and woman, the last thing she recalled before blacking out was the man puting his hand over her stomuch... She sat up,and slowly peeled back her top, expecting to see a huge bandage accross her mid-section, but there was nothing. She was confused, surely she hadn't dreamed about that attack?the pain had felt so real... Her head began to hurt slightly as she puzzled over the situation and her throat was dry, a glass of water was definatley needed. Dragging herself from the sofa, she made her way slowly toward the kitchen. The door was slightly ajar and the hum of conversation could be heard from within. Not wanting to interupt she paused outside and listened. One voice she recognised as belonging to Paige, the second was male, not Leo nor Chris...possibly the strange man from earlier.

"so there you have it" Paige was explaining " mom thinks i should tell her, i don't, so we brought you in to break the tie."

"Paige...I think you should tell Jo the truth" the male voice cut in " you asked me earlier why i haven't been in touch with you over the past couple of years. It's because i didn't know where i stood, what my role was in your life. Apart from one or two years when i was at my absolute rock bottom, i have been watching over you since the moment you were born, in my heart and mind you were, are, my daughter, but in your eyes i was nothing, a non entity. You had a father, one who loved you, looked after you, dried your tears, helped you ride a bike and tucked you into bed at night...you didn't seem ready or willing to accept another one. Perhaps you might have found room for me in time, but in truth, i didn't want to stick around to find out, i was scared that i wouldn't measure up, that i would seem a failure, that you wouldn't like me once you got to know me...so i did what seemed the easiest thing to do at the time, i walked away...better for me to live up to my reputation as a deadbeat rather than try and be a dad and end up disappointing you.."

"Don't you think that you should have let _me_ decide whether i wanted you in my life or not, before you decided to orb out without a backwards glance?"

"I know, and i'm sorry,...i have missed the first 27 years of my only childs' life and there isn't a day that goes by that i don't regret that...which is why i think you should tell Jo..take your own advice, let her decide whether she wants you in her life or not..I don't want you making the same mistakes i did..tell her now, while you have the chance, if today has taught us anything then it is to seize each moment..."

"but how?...what? i waltz up and say 'hey Jo guess what? you know that apparantly heartless woman who abandoned you on the church steps? That was me! except it wasn't because they told me you were dead, and dumped you without my knowledge, but nevermind all that cos i'm here now.!"

"When the time comes you will find a way"

Jo froze, her heart seemed to be beating in her ears and her knees began to tremble, she grabbed onto the back of the door for support. _Paige was her mother? that was impossible!..yet...Paige was her mother..?_

TBC


	16. Funny how life can turn on a dime

Chapter 16; Ain't it funny how life can turn on a dime.

It had been two days since the dark lighter attack and things were returning to normal in the halliwell household, well as normal as can be when one's house is built above the supernatural nexus and the inhabitants of said house are three of the most powerful witches in creation.

As soon as he had been declared officially "well" by Piper, Leo had been dispatched to ask the Elders about the impromptu darklighter attack, and had returned stating that it was nothing more than a failed attempt to stop Chris from stopping Wyatt from becoming evil.

Patty, wary about pushing her luck, had stayed long enough to say a quick hello to Phoebe on her return from work, before disappearing back "up there", reminding the girls that she was only a 'summing spell away' should they need her. Sam too had departed, though this time his absence was only to be temporary as Paige had made him promise to stick around more often.

Chris had found himself fussed over and force fed on such a grand scale that he was seriously beginning to wonder if he would be able to walk again after he was released from 'room arrest'. His constant asatation and protests that "time was a- wasting" in the great demonic hunt were simply dismissed by a wave of his mother's hand or ignored

completely to such an extent that he was beginning to go completely stir-crazy.

After her talk with Sam, and what with the dark lighter reminding her about the sanctity of life, Paige had decided to take the bull by the horns and tell Jo the truth. Blissfully unaware that that particular cat had already been let out of the bag, Paige had spent the past 48 hours dividing her time between (a) rehearsing her speech in front of various mirrors, metallic objects and shiny surfaces throughout the house, (b) trying to decide when would be the opportune moment and (c) worrying about how to explain about the whole magic exists concept. Truth be told she was still quite surprised that Jo hadn't said asked about her attacker's medieval weaponry, after all its not everyday that one is accosted by a man brandishing a bow and arrow, not even in San Francisco, however Jo had remained curiously disinterested in the whole affair. In fact, Paige had observed, Jo had seemed pretty listless these past few days, and had decided it was best to keep her off from school.

So it was that Jo came to be sat on the sofa in the living room on the following Tuesday morning. To the casual observer it might seem that she was just watching MTV, but inside her head her mind was racing. Since accidentally over hearing the conversation between Paige and Sam she had thought about little else other than the fact that she had just quite without trying found out that this nice lady was her mother, as her grandmother used to say, her life had quite literally turned on a dime.

She'd always known that she was adopted, she couldn't remember them telling her exactly, it was more like an innate knowledge, a fact that she had acquired when she was very young, along the lines of "the sky is blue, grass is green, and you're adopted." Still too young to have suffered from the teenage identity crisis which often leads adoptee on a long quest to find out 'who am I?' Jo had been content with Daddy and the grandparents. _Daddy_, for there lays the rub, deep down Jo had always wanted a mother. Her adoptive mother was a distant figure kept alive only in Jo's memories, memories which faded with each year that passed. Her death within weeks of Jo's 7th birthday meant that she had spent just over half her life without the maternal figure, they say that you can't miss what you don't have, and Jo would be apt to agree that 90 of the time this was true, but that other 10, mothers day, holidays, birthdays, mother-daughter week at school a hollow feeling overtook her, a feeling that her father's reassurances could never entirely fill. Until now.

Paige as her mother. Now that would be brilliant Jo had thought. She was fairly young, wore cool clothes, and had sisters! That meant aunties, sure Jo loved her uncle Dave, but he was away all the time in the army so she never saw him, it would be nice to have a big family, being an only child can be lonely sometimes. But how would she explain to Paige that she knew the truth? Consequently she had also spent the past 48 hours dividing her time between (a) rehearsing her speech in front of various mirrors, metallic objects and shiny surfaces throughout the house (b) trying to decide when would be the opportune moment and (c) worrying that this whole situation was a fabrication of her imagination, I mean she thought someone had attacked her with an arrow for god sakes.

The door bell rang breaking the silence. Paige lowered the stainless steel saucepan. Dammit, she had just gotten to the part where she was explaining to Jo about the elders. Sighing she placed the pan back onto the counter and made her way to the front door. Wrenching it open she found Mr Cowan on the front porch.

"Mr Cowan" she cried a little too brightly. "I thought I told you that I was working at home today!"

"I know which is why I came to see you. I have good news and bad news"

"oh, well, do come in"

"thank you. the bad news is that we have had word back from Iraq, unfortunately they have found a body identified as Jo's uncle"

"the poor man"

"Quite. However the good news is that at long last we have found a place in a local children's home for Jo, where she can stay until we match her up with a long term foster family. I rang her school and they said she was off, so that's why I came round, to collect her things, I can drive her over there now on the way back to the office"

"NO!" Mr Cowan jumped, Paige hadn't quite meant for it to have come out as loud as that.

"Paige?"

"I mean you can't take her"

"and why not?"

"because, I..well..she..it's..you..see"

"I'm her daughter" Jo appeared at Paige's elbow.

"say that again?"

"I..am...her..daughter" Jo repeated.

Cowan stared at the two of them, Jo with a look of quiet determination in her eyes, Paige, completley and utterly thunderstruck sure nobody could deny the obvious physical similarities between the two, but Jo, Paige's daughter? that was just preposterous!

"come on ladies enough of the kidding around"

"I'm not" Jo insisted.

"Now little lady, lying is a very naughty habit"

"She's not lying, it's the truth" Paige had finally found her voice

"Look Paige, it was very kind of you to look after Jo for all this time for us, and it was greatly appreciated, but seriously whatever this joke you're playing is, it's not funny,"

"it's not a joke, it's the truth" Paige stated, her voice growing stronger with each word "we can do a DNA test if you like"

"what?...I don't know what the hell is going on here, but I can see I am not going to get any sense out of either of you today...I tell you what, seeing as its you Paige..Jo, you can stay for one more night, but I want the pair of you in my office at 9am, with a damn good explanation got it?" with that he turned on his heal and walked out, leaving Jo and Paige to just stare at each in complete wonderment.

€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€

Over at P3 Piper Halliwell was halfway through unpacking that mornings shipment of beer, revealing in the peace and quiet of the club. After the disturbances of the past two days it was quite a relief to be back at work and establishing her 'normal' routine. It was also a relief to be out of the house, as when she had not been looking after an increasingly grumpy Chris, Phoebe had taken it upon herself to mother her older sister, giving Piper a taste of her own medicine, which she had not enjoyed one bit.

She had just started on her third crate when she was interrupted by her slightly neurotic younger son.

"Mom" he shouted the second he had fully corporalised in the room "what do you think you're doing?"

Piper paused midway to placing a bottle of Corona on the shelf "I'm negotiating the abolition of third world debt. what does it look like I'm doing?"

"It_ looks _like you're lifting heavy objects"

"No, its Corona light" she quipped

"ha, ha, you know what I mean, you shouldn't be doing that in your condition" he lectured.

"Chris, I have a band booked for tonight, and I'm already behind, I haven't been in work for the past two days as I have been administering to your every need, pray tell me, who else is going to do this for me?"

"dad"

"I don't want to bother your father with something so trivial..."

"I don't care...DAD, DAD"

"what, what is it?" Leo appeared immediately, distressed by the note of urgency in his son's voice.

"will you tell her to stop it?"

Leo looked between Chris and Piper and back to Chris again "Stop what?"

"The heavy lifting, putting a strain on her and mini me, not to mention being alone in an empty club, what if something happened? what if she was attacked?"

"Ok, hi, hello, over here!" Piper interrupted, "first of all, 'She' is the cat's mother, I am your mother, and as such I have a name, please use it, second of all, what has gotton into to you? I am unpacking some crates that's all, I really..." she trailed off, as the phone in the back office began to ring "I'll get that, and _you_" she pointed at Leo, "talk some sense into your son seeing as you're so pally pally"

"what _is_ going on?" Leo asked as he took over the unpacking of the beer. "I know we've all been on edge since the attack, but shouting at your mother for doing her job, that's a slight over reaction, even for you"

"I'm just worried about her, that darklighter just showed us how vulnerable we all are, especially her, seeing as you keep reminding me, she doesn't have the force field she had with Wyatt"

"True, she doesn't have a force field, but neither should she be wrapped up in cotton wool...I can else tell when you're lying to me Chris. you have that hooded look about you, the one you perfected during all those months that you claimed to be just to be our white lighter, now spill it"

"it's just..."

"what?"

"Is it so wrong for me to want her to be safe? she's my mother!"

"No, but you haven't answered my question"

"I promised myself I wouldn't do this, that it would be too painful, but I did it anyway..."

"what?"

"I always was a 'mummy's boy' as everyone puts it. I admit it, I don't care. Maybe it was because we're so similar, maybe it's because future you was never around and even when you were you never gave a dam, either way, I worshipped the ground she walked on. When we lost her, I wanted to die myself, the grief threatened to consume me and I let it, I felt as if I would never smile again, that there would be no more laughter or happiness in my life, a black fog seemed to surround me that would never go away...so when I came back to the past I made a promise to myself that I wouldn't get close to her, I wouldn't let myself love her, or be loved by her again, but it was too difficult, I let me guard down, let her back in, and when I came round from that dark lighter attack and saw her lying there on the floor, I felt like I was 14 years old again, ...she was in exactly the same spot, her body in the same position as when she died...I, just can't go through that again..."

"So, that's what you've been hiding from me" a female voice called from behind them.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$4

"you know! how do you know..when did you...?" Paige stuttered, her eyes never moving from her daughters face.

Jo blushed slightly " I kinda over heard you talking to your dad.."

"oh"

"But it sounded like you didn't want me to find out..i'm sorry, did I do something wrong when I told Mr Cowan..i was just so scared that he would take me away from you"

"God no!" Paige reached out for her daughter, pulling her into a bear hug, " No, it's nothing like that...I didn't want to tell you for many different reasons..not least because I couldn't stand it if you hated me..."

"why would I ever hate you?"

"because to all intents and purposes it looks as if I abandoned you.."

"but you're so kind, I'm sure there must have been a very good reason"

"yes, a very good reason, a very complicated reason, but yes, " a reason" by all accounts..."

"but it's too late" Jo muttered, her eyes downcast "he said, he said he had another place for me, that you have to take me a childrens home.."

"Never" Paige pulled her daughter closer "no one is taking you away from me ever again, whether Leo has to use memory dust or we get the cleaner's in.."

"memory dust?"

"ah" Paige suddenly realised what she had just said " we need to have a little talk..."

"will you explain why you left me?"

"I'll explain everything..but first I have to ask you, do you believe in magic?..."

Chris turned around slowly praying that he had just imagined that voice. He looked up. Nope. She was there, bold as day.

"How much of that conversation did you hear?" Leo asked glancing at his ex-wife.

"enough"

"it's rude to eaves drop on other people" Chris got on the defensive, anything to prolong the inevitable conversation that was to follow.

"Not really the time Chris" Leo muttered.

"well you always brought me up to have good manors…"he trailed off, his eyes scanned Piper's face hoping to gage her reaction to the news that she wouldn't make it to her 45th birthday, but her face remained expressionless, a blank canvas, much like Chris' own during those months of hiding his identity.

"was it quick?" Piper asked, her voice heavy.

"Mom, I .."

"was it quick?" she repeated.

"Yes" Chris glanced down at the floor, not wanting his mother to see the pain that was in his eyes.

"was it a demon?"

"Yes"

Piper felt her knees give way slightly and she swayed forward, clutching hold of the bar for support.

"Honey are you ok?" Leo asked rushing forward, he moved as if to place an arm round her shoulder but she brushed him away.

"I need to sit down" She grabbed the nearest bar stool and hoisted herself up awkwardly, her face now turning an ashen colour "pass me some water" she instructed.

Leo leapt to do her bidding, handing her a bottle of Evian which she downed in one.

They stood in silence for a few minutes until Chris could contain himself no more.

"See, see" " he screeched, "this is why I kept it a secret, this is not the sort of news that you hear well is it?"

"I still think she had a right to know Chris" Leo argued

"No she didn't, I have been there, an d trust me, knowing about it would not make it any easier"

"well I think "

"SHUT UP BOTH OF YOU" Piper , the colour now returning slightly to her face, stood between them. "Leo," she turned to her husband "you're right, I am glad that I know what's bugging Chris, because I could tell he was hiding something from me, and as a mother, that was worrying. Chris"

She faced her son, cupping his chin in her hand "you're also right, it is not the kind of news that one wants to hear, and it is sweet and very brave of you to try and keep that from me, but we are the parents and we should be protecting you not the other way round."

"But.."

"No buts" Piper continued "I can't say that I am not extremely shocked and saddened to find that I won't live to see you and Wyatt all grown up, and I can't pretend otherwise, and it will take me sometime to get used to, but all the same, I'm glad I know"

"how can you be glad that you know that you're going to die?"

"we're all going to die Christopher, just some it seems sooner than other, however now that I know, I can make the most of the time I do have, I can make preparations so that you're not alone, that you and your brother and your father can cope"

"besides" Leo interrupted, not appreciating the macabre tone of the conversation "if we prevent Wyatt from turning evil, then who knows what else we might prevent?"

"exactly" Piper agreed, looking at Chris who was still studying his shoes intently. "Chris?"

"I suppose so" he muttered.

"Good" Piper said, trying to look cheerful, even though deep inside she was dying "Now give me a hug, that's an order"

A small smile appeared on Chris' face as he slowly shuffled forward and wrapped his arms around his mother, and for a couple of seconds let himself forget, forget about the future, the past, the present, good and evil, he was in his mothers arms again, just him and her, and that was all he cared about.


	17. Tying up some lose ends

a/n: There are some issues such as Piper learning of her premature death, Jo and Paige's relationship etc that I am not glossing over, they will be dealt with in the follow up (if any one is interested)

Chapter 17: Tying up some loose ends

5 months later

"Paige hurry up!" Jo cried as she came running into the kitchen

Following a magic "word" with Leo, all those months ago, Mr Cowan had agreed to let Jo stay with Paige and the Halliwells long enough for a DNA test to be carried out. When the results had come back positive, much to the surprise of everyone at South Bay Social Services, Paige had been granted long term custody, ironically though, as Jo had been adopted, Paige had no legal rights over her daughter, her claim being merely biological, thus they had embarked on the long legal process of restoring those rights, the final court hearing for which had finally arrived.

"I'm just finishing up the paperwork, so that the moment the judge says yes, I can put it all in the post." her mother reassured her. "Besides I can't do it after we come back from court as we have a double wiccaning and a party to attend"

"Ughh, okay "Jo whined, thumbing through the stack of legal documents on the kitchen counter

"Finished"

"You forgot one" Jo brandished an incomplete form

"Oh that's just if you want to change your name, so we don't have to worry, it's mainly for babies and stuff"

"Oh right…speaking of names, why are Chris and Wyatt Halliwells not Wyatts? and do I get to chose a wiccaning name?"

"What do you mean?"

"Like when you get baptised you get a baptism name, so is it like the same with a wiccaning? Is that why you all have P names?"

"You are full of questions today aren't you?" Paige smiled indulgently "Come on, I'll explain in the car"

She grabbed her keys from the counter top "we wouldn't want to be late would we?"

"Bye guys" They shouted

"Bye" Phoebe, Piper and Chris chorused from upstairs.

After finally vanquishing Gideon, Wyatt had been saved from turning evil. Chris had been gravely injured by an athame, but fortunately Sam had been on hand to help heel him. Now fully recovered, Chris had decided to stay in the past for a bit longer, so that he could help Piper out with mini him and Wyatt, especially since Leo was not 100, after learning of his mentor's betrayal.

"At least they can escape" muttered Chris from the second story landing where Piper and her clipboard reined supreme.

"What was that?" Piper barked

"Nothing"

"Good, now where was I?" she consulted her clipboard "ah yes… Phoebe, you are to continue putting the streamers up, and then lay the place settings, ..Chris.."

"Mom you want to calm down a bit"

"No, Chris what I _want_ is for you to help Phoebe finish the decorations, then summon your grandmothers, I also _want t_o see you and your brothers downstairs suited and booted by the time Paige comes back from Court"

"My _brothers_?"

"Oh, Wyatt and mini-you, I know what I mean, don't split hairs with me mister"

"Oh I love all this family togetherness, you and the boys, Paige and Jo, if only I could find the man of my dreams and have a family of my own, if only James Robertson was here to share it all with me.." Phoebe moaned.

"Phoebe, give it a rest!" Chris exclaimed.

"Self reflection is not my schedule" Piper intoned

"A little happiness is all I ask.."

"If you must know, you will meet Robert Clune very soon okay?" Chris lost his patience.

"What?. When?"

"Does it matter? He was your true love, soul mate, and father of your children, isn't he worth waiting for?"

"suppose"

"Good."

"I still don't understand why you can't at least tell me what he does for a living, or what he looks like.."

"you will, trust me, everything will become very apparent when you meet _Robert_"

"but.."

"I can't say anymore..future consequences"

"And" Piper butted in, " we have things to do, now move it people"

££££££££££££

"The place looks lovely darling" Patty commented as she examined the decorations in the dining room. Chris had summoned her first, so that she could spend sometime with the girls before Grams arrived and started bossing everyone about.

"thanks" Piper replied smoothing a non existent crease out of the table cloth." It's a pity Dad got called away on that business trip so suddenly"

"hmmmm … and who's this handsome fellow?" Patty asked as Wyatt toddled round the corner in a suit.

"Wy Wy" the little boy repeated.

"so it is!" Patty exclaimed picking him up "I could just eat you all up"

"jeez" Chris rounded the corner carrying mini him" I know where Phoebe gets it from now"

"and don't you look beautiful too" she continued "both of you"

Chris blushed slightly "here" he handed baby Chris to Piper

"ah, look at you, your brother did a good job of dressing you didn't he?" Piper cooed.

"His brother?" Chris corrected his mother again.

"whatever"

"anyone home" Sam yelled as he orbed into the living room.

"Sam!" Patty exclaimed

"Patty" Sam stared at her "I..um..nice to see you again."

"And you, hopefully we will get to talk more this time"

"Yes, last time was a little_ tense_ shall we say.."

"Grandpa!" Jo ran through the front door and practically knocked her grandfather over.

"hello sweetie" he replied giving her a hug. "Did you leave your mother at the court?"

"No, she's parking the car, silly"

"They get on well" Patty whispered to Piper, indicating Jo and Sam

"She's got him wrapped around her little finger, I think he's trying to make up for what he missed out on with Paige" Piper explained.

"ahem" Patty coughed loudly. Jo looked up. "Grandma!" she ran to her grandmother.

"That's better" Patty replied, " I was beginning to feel left out!"

"Howdy folks" Paige finally made it to the living room, accompanied by Phoebe.

"Did it go well?" Phoebe asked

"Yep, she is legally mine, so I can do with her what I see fit!"

"oy!"

"No, seriously, she is mine lock stock and barrel, and no one can take her away!" She continued, giving Patty a peck on the cheek.

"That's excellent!" Piper declared, ", Now everyone upstairs Leo is summoning grams, so lets get this show on the road"

The assembled adults made their way toward the stairs, Paige lagging behind as she tried to unfasten the buttons on her suit jacket.

"Come on Mum!" Jo shouted, causing Paige to stop in her tracks. The 'M' word. Paige, like Jo, was of the opinion, the Mum was a title that is not automatically issued as a birthright, and it was a title you earned. From the day she found out that Paige was her mother, to this very morning, Paige had been 'Paige', that's not to say she hadn't dreamed about one day in the distant future being called the 'm' word, she had Jo back and that was all that mattered. Jo apparently thought otherwise.

"what did you say?" Paige asked, double checking that she wasn't hearing things.

"I said, come on _mum"_ Jo repeated, knowing exactly what her mother meant. She grabbed her Paige's hand, and together they made there way up towards the attic

"Hello my darlings" Grams greeted them. " A double wiccaning how wonderful! Of course I am always the last to know…"

"Grams" Piper and Phoebe grumbled

"I was only saying…now, a bit of tradition if you please, who presents these Children to be wiccaned?"

Piper walked forward holding baby Chris in her arms " I present Christopher Perry Halliwell"

"This so freaky" Chris whispered to Leo " I get to see my own wicaaning"

Paige and Jo stepped forward "I now present to you Miss Josephine Halliwell"

"Halliwell?" Phoebe exclaimed.

"It was Jo who wanted to change her surname to Mathews, and I said I would rather she was a Halliwell" Paige detailed.

"ehm aren't you forgetting something" Jo tapped her foot.

"Sorry" Paige apologised " Miss Josephine Poppy Halliwell."

"we added a P for protection" Jo added.

"you know" Chris began "although Josephine Poppy is phonetically better, in my time you were known as Poppy-Jo"

"In your time Wyatt was the overlord of all Evil, so you know, things change, and roll with the punches" Paige quipped

"_Anyway"_ Grams interrupted, "A bit of silence please"

Everyone sprang to attention.

"Welcome to the family Christopher and Jo, may you enrich and bring much joy into our lives….I call forth through space and time,

matriarchs of the Halliwell line…………

The End (for now)

Coming Soon, Sequel (If any one wants to read one)

'**Letting the Cat out of the Bag"**

Chris makes a difficult decision, Phoebe is in for a surprise when she meets her man, Paige gets more than she bargained for at her High School reunion, Piper and Leo clash over kids, and all the Halliwells receive for an enormous shock.


End file.
